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The Real 
^^ Truth About Germany ^^ 

Facts About the War 



By 

Douglas Sladen ^ 



An Analysis and a Refutation from the English Pomt of View, 

of the Pamphlet "The Truth About Germany," 

Issued under the Authority of a Committee 

of Representative German Citizens 



With an Appendix 

Great Britain and the War 

By 

A. Maurice Low/ M.A. 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 

Zbe fmfcfecrbocfter ipcees 

1914 



^ 






Copyright, 1914 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
Second Impression 



CI, A 387241: 



OCT 28 1914 



■&X mnggsjii^c|m#. mew uotii 



PUBLISHERS* NOTE 

THE following volume contains a reprint of the 
text of a pamphlet recently issued in Ger- 
many (in English) under the authority of a 
committee of representative citizens. It carries 
the names of the following Editors: Paul Dehn, 
Dr. Drechsler, Matthias Erzberger, Dr. Francke, 
B. Huldermann, Dr. Jackh, D. Naumann, Graf 
von Oppersdorff, Graf zu Reventlow, Dr. Paul 
Rohrbach, Dr. Schacht. 

It may fairly be described as the official German 
justification of the war. 

This pamphlet, while not formally published, is 
being distributed throughout the United States, 
but pains have apparently been taken to prevent 
copies finding their way into Great Britain. It 
is on this ground that the monograph is referred 
to by the English commentator as the "Secret 
White Paper." The analysis, made by a well- 
known English writer of the statements, facts, and 
conclusions presented by the German Committee, 
should prove of interest to American as well as to 
English readers. In this form of statement and 
answer, the volume constitutes an important con- 
tribution for the use of the future historian. 

iii 



iv Publishers' Note 

The statements of the German writer, or writers, 
are printed in Roman t^'-pe, while the text in 
heavy face represents the comments and replies 
of Mr. Sladen. 

The publishers have thought it desirable to in- 
clude in the volume, for the purpose of giving to 
the presentation of the case against Germany a 
full measure of completeness, a statement from 
the well-known writer Mr. A. Maurice Low, who 
discusses without heat, but with the authority of 
a scholarly publicist, the evidence and the docu- 
ments on the causation of the war and the relative 
responsibilities of England and of Germany. 

New York, 
October 5, 1914* 



PREFACE 

WITH the apparent purpose of misleading the 
American public as to the real factors 
which brought about the war, a monograph has 
been brought into print in Germany under the 
supervision of a Committee of Representative 
Germans, including Prince von Biilow, the German 
Imperial Chancellor from 1900 to 1909, entitled 
Truth About Germany. Facts About the War, 

The book carries no title-page, or publishing 
imprint or place of issue, and care has been taken 
to prevent it from reaching England. The 
edition has, however, been distributed widely in 
America, and copies were handed to certain 
American visitors (apparently those whomi the 
German authorities thought could be trusted) as 
they left Germany. 

Realizing the harm that could be caused by a 
series of erroneous and misleading statements, I 
have arranged with Messrs. Hutchinson, in Lon- 
don, and with G. P. Putnam's Sons, in New 
York, to publish an edition of a book which should 
contain the exact text of the Truth About Germany, 
with the misstatements corrected paragraph by 
paragraph. The reader will note that many of 
these refutations are not in my words, but are 
extracts from the utterances, speeches, and letters 



vi Preface 

of public men. A number of them are taken from 
White Books and from Official Reports. 

The present volume is the only form in which 
Truth About Germany can at this time be procured 
in Great Britain. Its introduction here was ap- 
parently prohibited by the German authorities, 
who realized how promptly the misstatements 
contained in the volume would be refuted in the 
English press. Every word of the original book 
will be found faithfully reprinted in this volume, 
and the text of the statements as originally given 
is followed by the analyses and refutations. 

As one example of the trustworthiness of the 
statements in Truth About Germany, I need at 
this point quote but one sentence : 

"The German troops with their iron discipline 
will respect the personal property and liberty of 
the individual in Belgium as they did in France 
in 1870." 

As evidence of the trustworthiness of this pro- 
mise, I need only refer to the record of German 
operations in Louvain, Malines, Dinant, Aerschot, 
and Termonde. These towns were destroyed not 
through the unavoidable waste of battle, but under 
official orders. There may also well be question as 
to whether the guaranty will provide insurance for 
the destruction of the Cathedral of Rheims. 

Douglas Sladen. 

London, 
September 23, igi4. 



The Book was Produced under the Charge 

OF THE Following Committee and 

Board of Editors: 

honorary committee 

Albert Ballin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ham- 
burg-American Steamship Company, Hamburg. 

Prince von Bulow, Hamburg. 

Dr. R. W. Drechsler, Director of the American Institute, 
Berlin. 

Dr. D. Dryander, Chief Court and Cathedral Preacher, Berlin. 

Freiherr von der Goltz, General Field-Marshal, Berlin. 

von Gwinner, Director of the German Bank, Berlin. 

Prof. Dr. von Harnack, Berlin. 

Prince von Hatzfeldt, Duke of Trachenberg. 

Dr. Heineken, Director of the North German Lloyd, Bremen. 

Prince Henckel von Donnersmarck. 

Dr. Kaempf, President of the Reichstag, Berlin. 

Prof. Dr. Eugen Kuhnemann, Breslau. 

Prof. Dr. Lamprecht, Leipzig. 

Dr. Theodor Lewald, Director in the Ministry of the Interior, 
Berlin. 

Franz von Mendelssohn, President of the Chamber of Com- 
merce, Berlin. 

Prince Munster Derneburg, Member of the Prussian Upper 
House. 

Count von Oppersdorff, Member of the Prussian Upper House 
and Member of the Reichstag, Berlin. 

Count von Posadowsky Wehner. 

Dr. Walther Rathenau, Berlin. 

Victor, Duke of Ratibor. 

Dr. Schmidt, Ministerial Director, Berlin. 

Prof. Dr. von Schmoller, Berlin. 

vii 



viii Committee and Editors 

Count von Schwerin Lowitz/ President of the House of 

Deputies. 
WiLHELM VON SIEMENS, Berlin. 
Frederick, Prince zu Solms-Baruth. 
Max Warburg, Hamburg. 
Siegfried Wagner, Bayreuth. 
VON Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, BerKn. 
Prof. Dr. Wundy, Leipzig. 
Frau Goldberger (wife of Privy Councillor of Commerce G.), 

Berlin. 
Princess Henckel von Donnersmarck. 
The Duchess of Ratibor. 
The Baroness Speck von Sternburg. 
Frau von Trott zu Solz (wife of v. Trott z. Solz, Minister of 

State). 

BOARD OF EDITORS 

Paul Dehn, Author, Berlin. 

Dr. Drechsler, Director of the American Institute, Berlin. 

Matthias Erzberger, Member of the Reichstag, Berlin. 

Prof. Dr. Francke, Berlin. 

B. Huldermann, Director of the Hamburg- American Steamship 

Company, Berlin. 
Dr. Ernst Jackh, Berlin. 

D. Naumann, Member of the Reichstag, Berlin. 
Count von Oppersdorff, Member of the Prussian Upper House 

and Member of the Reichstag, Berlin. 
Count zu Reventlow, Author, Charlottenburg. 
Dr. Paul Rohrbach, Dozent of the High School of Commerce 

Berlin. 
Dr. Schacht, Director of the Bank of Dresden, Berlin. 



CONTENTS 

PAGH 

Preface v 

Introduction — From Heine to von Bernhardi • xi 

CHAPTER I 

LISTEN, ALL YE PEOPLE ! • . 3 

CHAPTER II 

HOW THE WAR CAME ABOUT 

Who is responsible for the War? — Not Germany! — Eng- 
land's Policy! — Her shifting of Responsibility and 
promoting the Struggle while alone possessing Power 
to avert it! ........ 17 

CHAPTER III 

REICHSTAG AND EMPEROR 

England, France, and Russia, un threatened by Germany, 
go to War for Political Reasons — Germany defends her 
Independence and fights for her very Existence, for her 
Future as a Great Power — How a Peaceful People were 
imbued with the Spirit of War ..... 58 

CHAPTER IV 

THE GERMAN MOBILIZATION 

The Clockwork of Mobilization: Perfect Order and Quiet 
Everywhere — General Acceptance by all Classes and 
Factions of the Necessity of a War not sought by 
Germany ........ 72 

CHAPTER V 

ARMY AND NAVY 

The German Army and Navy on the Watch — Four Million 
German Men in the Field — Thousands of Volunteers 

ix 



Contents 



PAGE 



join the Colors to fight for Germany's Existence, 
among them the Flower of her Scientific and Artistic 
Life ......... 90 

CHAPTER VI 

NEUTRALITY BY THE GRACE OF ENGLAND • I" 

CHAPTER VII 

THE ATTITUDE OF GERMANY*S ENEMIES 
Germany overrun by Spies for Years Past . . .141 

CHAPTER VIII 

LIES ABOUT GERMANY 

The Machinations of England and France to put Germany 

in the Wrong — Lies on All Sides . . . .164 

CHAPTER IX 

GERMANY AND THE FOREIGNER 

Respect for the Foreigner — Russians willing to remain in 
Germany — lU-Treatment of Germans in Belgium and 
France ......... 201 

CHAPTER X 

COMMERCE AND TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN 

GERMANY AND U. S. A. 

Germany's Financial Rise since 1870 — Export and Import 
with the U. S. A. — The Present Firm Condition of 
German Finance ....... 217 

CHAPTER XI 

WHO IS TO BE VICTORIOUS? 
An Appeal to American Friends ..... 232 

APPENDIX 
Great Britain and the War . 249 

By A. Maurice Low, M.A. 



INTRODUCTION 
FROM HEINE TO VON BERNHARDI 

THE PROPHECY OF HEINE 

"Christianity — and this is its highest merit — 
has in some degree softened, but it could not 
destroy, that brutal German joy of battle. When 
once the taming talisman, the Cross, breaks in 
two. the savagery of the old fighters, the senseless 
Berserker fury of which the northern poets sing 
and say so much, will gush up anew. That talis- 
m.an is decayed, and the day will come when it 
will piteously collapse. Then the old stone gods 
will rise from the silent ruins, and rub the dust 
of a thousand years from their eyes. Thor, with 
his giant's hammer, will at last spring up, and 
shatter to bits the Gothic cathedrals." — Quoted in 
a letter to *^The Times, ^* September 2ist, 1914. 

WHAT VON BERNHARDI SAYS 

"We may expect from the Government that it 
will prosecute the military and political prepara- 
tions for war with the energy which the situation 
demands, in clear knowledge of the dangers 
threatening us, but also in correct appreciation of 
our national needs and of the warlike strength of 
our people, and that it will not let any conventional 
scruples distract it from this object." 



xii Introduction 

"Conditions may arise which are more powerful 
than the most honorable intentions.'* 

''Our people must learn to see that the mainte- 
nance of peace never can be or may he the goal of a 
policy y 

''The inevitableness, the idealism, and the 
blessing of war, as an indispensable and stimulat- 
ing law of development, must be repeatedly 
emphasized." 

"The lessons of history thus confirm the view 
that wars which have been deliberately provoked 
by far-seeing statesmen have had the happiest 
results." 

"Such decision is rendered more easy by the 
consideration that the prospects of success are 
always tho greatest when the moment for declaring 
war can be settled to suit the political and military 
situation." 

"Reflection thus shows not only that war is an 
unqualified necessity, but that it is justifiable from 
every point of view." 

"If we sum up our arguments, we shall see that, 
from the most opposite aspects, the efforts directed 
towards the abolition of war must not only be 
termed foolish, but absolutely immoral, and must 
be stigmatized as unworthy of the human race." 

These quotations are not continuous^ but speci- 
mens of what may he found on almost every page in 
von Bernhardi's ' ' Germany and the Next War. * ' To 
them may be added, since, the destruction of Louvain, 
Malines, Termonde, Dinant, and Rheims Cathedral: 



Introduction xiii 

"I must try to prove that war is not merely a 
necessary element in the life of nations, but an 
indispensable factor of culture, in which a true 
civilized nation finds the highest expression of 
strength and vitality." — von Bernhardi. 

"My heart bleeds for Louvain." — The Kaiser. 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER I 

The Times In a dispatch from its correspondent in New York 
on August 13th, 1914, says: 

"The Outlook (New York) to-day publishes a careful sym- 
posium setting forth the case for every nation engaged in the war. 
It follows this with a leading article, entitled * The War against 
Popular Rights,' in which it says: 

'"History will hold the German Emperor responsible for the 
war in Europe. Austria would never have made her indefensible 
attack on Servia if she had not been assured beforehand of the 
support of Germany. The German Emperor's consent to co- 
operate with England in mediation could have put a stop to 
Austria's advance. To doubt that Germany and Austria have 
been in practical alliance in this act of brigandage — for it deserves 
no other name — is to shut one's eyes to all the signs. The 
inevitable consequences of the Austro-German alliance, if it is 
successful, it required no prophet to see. It would reduce the 
Balkan States to the state of provinces of Germany and Austria. 
It would make Belgium and Holland Germanic provinces. It 
would create a Germanic Empire which would extend from the 
North Sea to the Mediterranean. It would bring all Europe 
under the domination of this Germanic Empire, and would reduce 
Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, and England to subordinate posi- 
tions, if it did not make them dependencies. It would banish 
from Eastern Europe the democratic movement in which France 
and England are the leaders. It would discourage the hopes of 
the democracy in Spain, Italy, and Russia, and would enthrone 
autocracy from the Atlantic coast to Siberia, from the North Sea 
to the Mediterranean. 

"'Because the German Emperor combines with remarkable 
ability for organization this mediaeval ambition to dominate all 
Europe, he is the greatest personal peril of the century to popular 
liberty and human development. . . . '" 



The Real Truth About 
Germany* 



CHAPTER I 

LISTEN, ALL YE PEOPLE! 

TRY to realize, everyone of you, what we are 
going through! Only a few weeks ago all 
of us were peacefully following our several voca- 
tions. The peasant was gathering in this summer's 
peaceftil crop, the factory hand was working with 
accustomed vigor. Not one human being amongst 
us dreamed of war. 

" Not one human being amongst us dreamed 
of war." This sentence excludes a great many 
otherwise worthy persons from the category of 
human beings, for mobilization notices had gone 
out to Germans in South America in time to get 
them home for the war — a matter of two months, 
at least. And one wonders what the people who 
were making the big siege-guns were thinking of. 

We are a nation that wishes to lead a quiet 
and industrial life. This need hardly be stated 

* The text of the German statement is printed in the roman 
type; and that of the British comment in the heavy face. 

3 



4 The Real Truth About Germany 

to you Americans. You, of all others, know the 
temper of the German who lives within your gates. 
Our love of peace is so strong that it is not re- 
garded by us in the light of a virtue; we simply 
know it to be an inborn and integral portion of 
ourselves. Since the foundation of the German 
Empire in the year 1871, we, living in the center 
of Europe, have given an example of tranquillity 
and peace, never once seeking to profit by any 
momentary difficulties of our neighbors. 

" Never once seeking to profit by any momen- 
tary difficulties of our neighbors." On pain of 
war Germany forced France to dismiss M. Del- 
casse from office at the time of the first Morocco 
incident; on pain of war, she forced Russia 
(whom she had egged on into her disastrous Man- 
churia Expedition with the express purpose of 
weakening her) to acquiesce in Austria's piratical 
seizure of Bosnia and the Herzegovina in 1908. 
She seized a port in Morocco with the object of 
applying similar pressure to France in the Agadir 
incident three years ago, but compromised when 
she found that war with France meant war also 
with Great Britain, whom she had treated as a 
negligible quantity ; and caused the present war by 
trying to humiliate Russia as she had humiliated 
her in 1909. And to crown all one may mention 
the Emperor's telegram to President Kruger at 
the time of the Jameson Raid, and his proposal to 
France and Russia that they should join him in 
annihilating England when she was paralyzed by 
the Boer War. 



Listen, All Ye People ! 5 

Our commercial extension, our financial rise 
in the world, is far removed from any love of 
adventure, it is the fruit of painstaking and 
plodding labor. 

" Our commercial extension is far removed 
from any love of adventure." The seizure of 
Kiao-Chau, the German territory in China which 
Japan is now besieging, is a sufficient example to 
the contrary. 

We are not credited with this temper, because 
we are insufficiently known. Our situation and 
our way of thinking is not easily grasped. 

Everyone is aware that we have produced great 
philosophers and poets, we have preached the 
gospel of humanity with impassioned zeal. Amer- 
ica fully appreciates Goethe and Kant, looks 
upon them as corner-stones of elevated culture. 
Do you really believe that we have changed our 
natures, that our souls can be satisfied with mili- 
tary drill and servile obedience? We are soldiers, 
because we have to be soldiers, because otherwise 
Germany and German civilization would be swept 
away from the face of the earth. It has cost us 
long and weary struggles to attain our independ- 
ence, and we know full well that in order to pre- 
serve it we must not content ourselves with 
building schools and factories, we must look to 
our garrisons and forts. We and all otu* soldiers 
have remained, however, the same lovers of music 
and lovers of exalted thought. We have retained 



6 The Real Truth About Germany 

our old devotion to all peaceable sciences and arts: 
as all the world knows, we work in the foremost 
rank of those who strive to advance the exchange 
of commodities, who fiirther usefiil, technical 
knowledge. 

Other nations have not seen the phases of the 
German character alluded to in the above para- 
graph. But they will readily admit the sacrifices 
of universal service and heavy taxation to which 
the Germans so cheerfully submit, so as to be 
able to fight their Eastern and Western neighbors 
at the same time, and that Germany has main- 
tained the most perfect military organization 
known in history without losing ground in Music 
or Learning, Art or Science. 

But we have been forced to become a nation of 
soldiers, in order to be free. And we are bound 
to follow our Kaiser, because he symbolizes and 
represents the unity of our nation. To-day, 
knowing no distinction of party, no difference of 
opinion, we rally round him, willing to shed the 
last drop of oiu: blood. For though it takes a 
great deal to rouse us Germans, when once aroused 
our feelings run deep and strong. Everyone is 
filled with this passion, with the soldier *s ardor. 
But when the waters of the deluge shall have sub- 
sided, gladly will we return to the plow, and to the 
anvil. 

All foreigners will agree that it is because the 
Germans felt themselves bound to follow their 



Listen, All Ye People ! 7 

Kaiser blindly that the present war has ensued. 
But it is difficult for them to take the view that it 
needs much to rouse German arrogance, which 
has hung over the head of Europe like the sword 
of Damocles for nearly half a century. 

It deeply distresses us to see two highly-civilized 
nations, England and France, joining the onslaught 
of autocratic Russia. That this could happen, 
will remain one of the anomalies of history. It 
is not our fault: we firmly believed in the desira- 
bility of the great nations working together, we 
peaceably came to terms with France and England 
in sundry difficult African questions. There was 
no cause for war between Western Europe and us, 
no reason why Western Europe should feel itself 
constrained to f tirther the power of the Czar. 

That " highly-civilized '* England and France 
find themselves allied in this war to " autocra- 
tic " Russia is no anomaly, because Germany has 
chosen to maintain an army which upset the 
balance of Europe without the army of Russia in 
the other scale. As to the difficult African ques- 
tions in which Germany peaceably came to terms 
with France and England, see page 115. Since 
England and France relied on the Czar, they had 
to support him when he was threatened with war 
or humiliation by Germany. 

The Czar, as an individual, is most certainly 
not the instigator of the unspeakable horrors that 
are now inundating Europe. But he bears before 



8 The Real Truth About Germany 

God and posterity the responsibility of having 
allowed himself to be terrorized by an unscrupu- 
lous military clique. 

The English and the Americans consider that 
the man who has to bear before God and pos- 
terity the responsibility of listening to an un- 
scrupulous military clique is, not the Czar, but 
the Kaiser — if, indeed, he had that excuse, and 
was not listening to the voice of the flatterers of 
his entourage even more than to the voice of his 
military advisers. 

Ever since the weight of the crown has pressed 
upon him he has been the tool of others. He did 
not desire the brutalities in Finland, he did not 
approve of the iniquities of the Jewish Pogroms, 
but his hand was too weak to stop the fury of the 
reactionary party. Why wotdd he not permit 
Austria to pacify her southern frontier? It was 
inconceivable that Austria should calmly see her 
heir-apparent murdered. How could she? All 
the nationalities under her rule realized the impos- 
sibility of tamely allowing Servia's only too evident 
and successful intrigues to be carried on under 
her very eyes. The Austrians could not allow 
their venerable and sorely-stricken monarch to 
be wounded and insulted any longer. 

" Why would not the Czar permit Austria to 
pacify her southern frontier? " asks the pamphlet, 
very disingenuously. It is notorious that when 
Austria first sought satisfaction from Servia, 



Listen, All Ye People I 9 

making the murder of the Archduke Francis 
Ferdinand the occasion, Russia, in her anxiety 
for the peace of Europe, brought considerable 
pressure to bear on Servia, urging her to give 
every reasonable satisfaction. Austria, however, 
demanded almost impossible terms from Servia, 
with an ultimatum of indecently short duration. 
Nothing short of a humiliation so absolute that 
the Balkan kingdoms would consider that Russia 
had not the power to protect them would satisfy 
Austria. 

This reasonable and honorable sentiment on 
the part of Austria has caused Russia to put itself 
forward as the patron of Servia, as the enemy of 
European thought and civilization. * 

Russia had the candor to admit that Servia had, 
since her successes in two Balkan wars, been very 
difficult in her attitude towards Austria. And 
this she admitted not forgetting the provocation 
Servia had received from Austria, not only by the 
seizure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but by being 
denied access to the sea, after her sacrifices and 
her heroic conduct in her two victorious wars. 
She therefore tried to make Servia reasonable in 
repl3ring to the Austrian ultimatum. She was 
even willing to let Austria chastise Servia, pro- 
vided that after the chastisement had been in- 
flicted she should be consulted as to the terms to 
be imposed upon Servia. Less she could not do 
without losing her position in Europe and espec- 
ially in the Balkan peninsula. Undoubtedly the 
Servian agitation in the South-Slav provinces of 



10 The Real Truth About Germany 

Austria would have been extinguished as part of 
the pact. 

We know now that Austria, if left to herself, 
would have been glad to accept Russia's offer, 
also that Austria advanced her claims at this 
moment in this peremptory way because Germany 
had decided either to fight Russia before her 
military strength was any further advanced, or 
to inflict another humiliation on her like that 
of 1909, which would make the Balkan Slavs 
abandon Russia. 

Russia has an important mission to fill in its 
own country and in Asia. It would do better in 
its own interest to leave the rest of the world in 
peace. But the die is cast, and all nations must 
decide whether they wish to further us by senti- 
ments and by deeds, or the government of the 
Czar. This is the real significance of this appal- 
ling struggle, all the rest is immaterial. Russia's 
attitude alone has forced us to go to war with 
France, and with their great ally. 

The die has been cast, and the principal nations 
of Europe and Asia have decided that the cause 
of civilization is to be served by supporting the 
Czar against the Kaiser. The gigantic armaments, 
the incessant war-scares, producing cataclysms 
on the Exchanges of Europe, the increasing fre- 
quency of ultimatums, make the establishment of 
a " pax Romana" a " sine qua non " for Europe. 
And this is only to be achieved by breaking up 
the military tyranny with which Germany has 



Listen, All Ye People ! ii 

threatened it. This is not a war to save the 
skin of Servia or to further Pan-Slavism; it is a 
war against violence and military autocracy — a 
war to give the world rest. 

" Russia's attitude alone " did force Germany 
into war with England and France because 
Russia defied the bully, and France would not 
forsake her; the actual occasion of England's 
declaration of war was Germany's violation of 
Belgian neutrality. 

The German nation is serious and conscientious. 
Never would a German Government dare to con- 
template a war for the sake of dynastic interest, 
or for the sake of glory. This would be against 
the entire bent of our character. Firmly believing 
in the justice of our cause, all parties — the Con- 
servatives and the Clericals, the Liberals and the 
Socialists — ^have joined hands. All disputes are 
forgotten, one duty exists for all — the duty of 
defending our country and vanquishing the enemy. 

Will not this calm, self-reliant, and unanimous 
readiness to sacrifice all, to die or win, appeal to 
other nations and force them to understand our 
real character and the situation in which we are 
placed? 

The public opinion of Europe and America does 
not endorse the dictum of the pamphlet that 
" never would a German Government dare to 
contemplate a war for the sake of dynastic 
interest or for the sake of glory. " For surely 
the latter includes the reason for which this 



12 The Real Truth About Germany 

war is being waged. Germany, as von 
Bernhardi has pointed out again and again, has 
aimed at the hegemony of Europe developing 
into the hegemony of the world. The crushing 
of France, the absorption of Belgium, Holland, 
and Denmark, the stripping England of her navy, 
her colonies, and her wealth, were all steps in 
this peaceful aim. Then the United States were 
to be defied for the possession of South America. 
Russia was apparently to be bought off, possibly 
by presenting her with Asia. Germany suddenly 
came to the conclusion that she might never 
again have such a favorable opportunity for 
this final war. Russia and France would increase 
in military power at her expense faster than she 
would increase in naval power at England's 
expense. Russia appeared to be in the throes 
of revolution, England unable to avert a civil 
war. France had forgotten to keep her powder 
dry and was in a state of financial chaos. There- 
fore she determined that Russia should lose 
power by submitting to humiliation, or if she 
refused to do this, France should be smothered 
by a military avalanche before Russia had time 
to mobilize. For English Governments Ger- 
many had such a contempt that she did not 
believe that any British Premier would declare 
war, however suicidal it might be for England 
to stand by, waiting to be extinguished when 
other nations were in the dust. 

Did Austria receive her orders from the Kaiser, 
who proceeded to throw dust into the eyes of 
Europe until the psychological moment should 
arrive? 



Listen, All Ye People I 13 

The war has severed us from the rest of the 
world, all our cable communications are destroyed. 
But the winds will carry the mighty voice of 
Justice even across the ocean. We trust in God, 
we have confidence in the judgment of right- 
minded men. And through the roar of battle we 
call to you all. Do not believe the mischievous 
lies that our enemies are spreading about. We 
do not know if victory will be ours, the Lord alone 
knows. We have not chosen our path, we must 
continue doing our duty, even to the very end. 
We bear the misery of war, the death of our sons, 
believing in Germany, believing in duty. 

" The war has severed us from the rest of the 
world, all our cable communications are destroyed. 
But the winds will carry the mighty voice of 
Justice even across the ocean. " With reference 
to this one is bound to remark that whatever 
the mighty voice of Justice has to say about the 
matter — and the world does not think that its 
verdict is for the Kaiser, the wanton destroyer 
of Joan of Arc's Cathedral of Rheims — the winds 
must have been the medium through which 
" Count John Bernstorff , " the German Ambassa- 
dor in the United States, has received the war 
news with which he has been favoring the United 
States papers. The wind also takes German 
news to the Turkish and South American papers 
daily. 

And we know that Germany cannot be wiped 
from the face of the earth. 



14 The Real Truth About Germany 

" Germany cannot be wiped from the face 
of the earth." Every sane man knows that; 
every sane man is glad of it. The quarrel of 
the world is not with Germany, which has done 
so much for music and scholarship, art, and 
science. It is German militarism which all 
mankind outside of Germany — and a good deal 
of the mankind within its limits — desires to see 
wiped out. 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER II 

By Robert Blatchford in the Daily Mail, August 25th, 1914. 

"This is not a royal war, nor a Government war, nor a war of 
diplomatic making; it is a war of free nations against a devilish 
system of imperial domination and national spoliation. There 
can be no security in Europe until Germany is defeated. " 

"The fact is we have stood by France and Belgium in this war 
because our national existence depended upon them. " 

"And now Britain and her Allies must beat Germany or 
Germany will beat them." 

"This war did not originate in the murder of the Austrian 
Grand Duke. It arose out of the German desire to dominate the 
world. It is not a casual war, caused by some offense of yester- 
day; it is a deliberate war of aggression, for which German 
ambition has been arming and preparing for more than twenty 
years. 

"This war did not spring up suddenly because a Servian fanatic 
threw a bomb. Its seed was sown by the Prussian military writer 
Clausewitz, the master of Bismarck. Since Prussia adopted the 
policies and strategy of Clausewitz this war has been coming. 
The Prussian attack on Denmark in 1864, upon Austria in 1866, 
and upon France in 1870, were steps towards this war; the build- 
ing of the German fleet, the fortification of Heligoland, the making 
of the Kiel Canal, the increase in the German Army, the imposi- 
tion of the great German war tax of fifty millions, the construc- 
tion of strategic railways to the Belgian border — all these were 
steps towards this war. 

"We could not keep out of this war because, had we been so 

15 



1 6 The Real Truth About Germany 

cowardly as to desert the Belgians and the French, we should have 
had to fight Germany afterwards, and without allies. " 

Article from Die Wahrheit, August 5, quoted by the Times, 
226. August, 1914. 

"'From the first moment of the war, from every big and small 
aspect of the present sanguinary conflict, justice and civilization 
went against the Kaiser, and he has on his side only brutal and 
inhuman force and violence. 

'"The ultimatum of Austria to Servia was a brutal demand of 
a Great Power to a small country. The Kaiser's demand that 
Russia should not spoil Austria's sanguinary meal in Servia was 
both unjust and stupid. The most terrible act, however, was the 
Kaiser's declaration of war against Belgium. Such an act sets 
mankind again on the road to the days of barbarity and cannibal- 
ism. As for England, she fights in this war not for her present 
existence, but for her future existence, not for to-day, but for 
to-morrow. England knows, and the whole world knows, that a 
victorious Germany against all countries engaged in the war 
would lead to the political end of England.'" 

Article in the American Hebrew of New York, quoted by the Times , 

226. August, 1 9 14. 

"'After forty-five years of peace Germany breaks its record, 
and plunges into war which not one of its defenders can fairly 
justify. It is criminal aggression and nothing else which led 
Germany to turn about, violate the neutrality of Belgium, and 
force its way into France. The campaign was clearly planned 
before the ultimatum was issued to Russia. The Kaiser will go 
down into history as the most patient War Lord that ever lived. 
He waited and waited, and then selected the most inopportune 
and unjustifiable occasion to plunge his country into war. The 
world is on the brink of universal disaster. A madman in 
Europe moves and disturbs the "balance of power.'" " 



CHAPTER II 

HOW THE WAR CAME ABOUT 

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAR? — NOT GER- 
MANY! — ENGLAND'S POLICY! — ^HER SHIFTING 
OF RESPONSIBILITY AND PROMOTING THE 
STRUGGLE WHILE ALONE POSSESSING POWER 
TO AVERT IT ! 

THE pamphlet accuses England of being re- 
sponsible for the war, of promoting it while 
she alone could avert it, and ingenuously proceeds 
to remark that " the very parties and persons who 
wanted the war, either at once or later, assert 
that the enemy wanted and began it." No one 
will dispute the judgment of the pamphlet in this 
matter. 

It is an old and common experience that after the 
outbreak of a war the very parties and persons 
that wanted the war, either at once or later, assert 
that the enemy wanted and began it. The Ger- 
man Empire especially always had to suffer from 
such untruthful assertions, and the very first days 
of the present terrible European war confirm this 
old experience. Again Russian, French, and 
British accounts represent the German Empire 
as having wanted the war, 
« 17 



1 8 The Real Truth About Germany 

It is unreasonable to suppose that Russia or 
France wanted the war when the pamphlet itself 
points out that Russia and France in two years' 
time would be so powerful that they would 
always be reminding the world that they were 
invincible (see page 125). And it was really very 
ingenuous of Germany to force England into a 
war with her at a moment when our perfidious 
nation had the support of three other first-class 
Powers, instead of politely waiting till Germany 
could take her alone at a moment of the most 
complete disadvantage. 

Only a few months ago influential men and 
newspapers of Great Britain as well as of Paris 
could be heard to express the opinion that nobody 
in Europe wanted war and that especially the 
German Emperor and his Government had sin- 
cerely and effectively been working for peace. 
Especially the English Government in the course 
of the last two years asserted frequently and 
publicly, and was supported by the Westminster 
Gazette and a number of influential English news- 
papers in the assertion, that Great Britain and 
the German Empire during the Balkan crisis of 
the last few years had always met on the same 
platform for the preservation of peace. 

There is no doubt that during the Balkan war 
the German Emperor and Government did 
sincerely and effectively work for peace. But I 
do not see why the pamphlet emphasizes this, 
for it only serves to emphasize the fact that the 
present war would have been averted if Germany 



How the War Came About 19 

had sincerely worked for peace. It leads us to 
the irresistible conclusion that the Germans 
worked for peace in the Balkan war because their 
expectations as to its course had not been realized. 
Instead of destroying the power of the Slav States 
banded against Turkey, it showed (i) that if a 
European war happened then, Russia and the 
Balkan nations would eat up Austria in a month, 
and be face to face with Germany, and (2) it gave 
Germany the hint of which she has taken such 
brilliant advantage — that her artillery needed 
overhauling, since the Turkish Krupps were 
entirely outclassed by the French guns of the 
Allies. It was much more advantageous to Ger- 
many that Austria should rob both Greece and 
Servia of the fruits of their victories, which they 
expected on the Adriatic, and should inspire 
Bulgaria to wreck the Balkan League, which 
had proved so inconveniently powerful. It is 
not to be forgotten that the King of Bulgaria is 
a prince with Austrian connections. 

The late Secretary of State, von Kiderlen- 
Waechter, his successor, Mr. von Jagow, and the 
Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann - Hollweg, 
likewise declared repeatedly in the Reichstag how 
great their satisfaction was that a close and con- 
fidential diplomatic cooperation with Great Brit- 
ain, especially in questions concerning the near 
East, had become a fact. And it has to be ac- 
knowledged to-day that at that time the German 
and British interests in the near East were identical, 
or at any rate ran in parallel lines. 



20 The Real Truth About Germany 

There has undoubtedly been a disposition in 
recent years for Great Britain and Germany to be 
more conciliatory to each other on Eastern ques- 
tions. The pity was that at a critical moment the 
wisdom of Germany's statesmen went for noth- 
ing. The war party was strong enough to sweep 
them aside. 

The collapse of European Turkey in the war 
against the Balkan alliance created an entirely 
new situation. At first Bulgaria was victorious 
and great, then it was beaten and humiliated by 
the others with the intellectual help of Russia. 

Bulgaria was involved in war with the other 
Balkan powers by the machinations of Austria. 
The strength of the Balkan League threw a power 
as strong as Austria into the balance of Europe 
on the Russian side. To suppose that Russia 
took any part in breaking it up, as this pamphlet 
suggests, is sheer imbecility. To Austria, on the 
other hand, it was a matter of life and death to 
break up the League, and Bulgaria was so arro- 
gant and so greedy that it was easy to seduce her. 

There could be no doubt about Russia's inten- 
tions: she was preparing for the total subjection 
of weakened Turkey and for taking possession of 
the Dardanelles and Constantinople in order to 
rule from this powerful position Turkey and the 
other Balkan states. Great Britain and the 
German Empire, which only had economic interests 
in Turkey, were bound to wish to strengthen 



How the War Came About 21 

Turkey besides trying to prevent the Moscovite 
rule on the whole Balkan peninsula. 

It follows that if Russia had had any idea of 
proceeding to acquire the Dardanelles and Con- 
stantinople, she would have preserved the Balkan 
League by every means in her power to incapaci- 
tate Austria from objecting. It is curious, too, 
if this was the aim of Russia, that she has shown 
no sign whatever of a design to take the Darda- 
nelles or Constantinople. 

Servia had come out of the second Balkan war 
greatly strengthened, and with her territory very 
much increased. Russia had done everything to 
strengthen this bitter enemy of our ally Austria- 
Hungary. For a great number of years Servian 
politicians and conspirators had planned to un- 
dermine the southeastern provinces of Austria- 
Hungary, and, to separate them from the dual 
monarchy. 

Undoubtedly Servia had come out of her two 
wars greatly strengthened as well as greatly in- 
creased in size. Undoubtedly Russia wished her 
well, and had with difficulty restrained Slav feel- 
ing when Servia was deprived of half the fruits 
of her victories by Austria's denying her access to 
the sea. Undoubtedly Greece was also angry 
with Austria for checking her Albanian aspirations. 
And Austria's protegee and dupe, Bulgaria, had 
extinguished herself for the time being. It is 
equally certain that Servia owed Austria another 



22 The Real Truth About Germany 

grudge for seizing Bosnia and the Herzegovina, 
and made herself the center of the aspirations of 
the various Serb peoples, in Austria as well as 
Servia, to be united in a greater Servia, just as 
the Italians of Lombardy and Venetia were freed 
from Austria and united to the rest of Italy half a 
century ago. But it is more than doubtful if 
Russia had given Servia the smallest encourage- 
ment to begin active operations in any way. The 
Germans themselves acted on the belief that 
Russia would not be ready to fight till 191 6. Had 
the Balkan League survived, the case would have 
been different; but Austria had checkmated this 
first move. 

In Servia as well as in Russia prevailed the 
opinion that, at the first attack, Austria-Hungary 
would fall to pieces. In this case, Servia was to 
receive South Austria and Russia was to dictate 
the peace in Vienna. The Balkan war had ruined 
Turkey almost entirely, had paralyzed Bulgaria., 
that was friendly, and had strengthened the 
Balkan states that were hostile to Austria. At 
the same time there began in Roumania a Rus- 
sian and French propaganda, that promised this 
country, if it should join the dual alliance, the 
Hungarian province of Siebenbuergen. 

The world may shortly know if Roumania has 
been promised, and has accepted, a Hungarian 
province as the price of joining the Triple Entente. 

Thus it became evident in. Germany and in 
Austria that at St. Petersburg first by diplomatic 



How the War Came About 33 

and political, then also by military action, a com- 
prehensive attack of Slavism under Russian guid- 
ance was being prepared. The party of the Grand 
Dukes in St. Petersburg, the party of the Russian 
officers, always ready for war, and the Panslavists, 
the brutal and unscrupulous representatives of 
the idea that the Russian czarism was destined 
to rule Europe — all these declared openly that 
their aim was the destruction of Austria-Hungary. 

If the Russian Grand Dukes' military party and 
Panslavists have openly declared that their aim 
was the destruction of Austria-Hungary, the 
British Press has not thought the fate of Austria- 
Hungary of sufficient importance to chronicle 
these declarations. But the statement is ab- 
solutely untrue. Not the slightest proof of it has 
been offered. 

In Russia the army, already of an immense size, 
was increased secretly but comprehensively and 
as quick as possible; in Servia the same was done, 
and the Russian Ambassador in Belgrade, Mr. v. 
Hartwig, was, after the second Balkan war, the 
principal promoter of the plan to form against 
Austria a new Balkan alliance. 

For the first time I find myself in complete 
agreement with the editors of the pamphlet. I 
have no doubt that the Russian army was being 
increased as comprehensively, as quickly, and as 
secretly as possible, and that the Russian Am- 
bassador in Belgrade, von Hartwig, was doing 



24 The Real Truth About Germany 

his best to form a new Balkan alliance against 
Austria. 

In Bosnia during all this time the Servian pro- 
paganda was at work with high treason, and in 
the end with the revolver and the bomb. 

In Vienna and in Berlin the greatness and the 
purpose of the new danger could not remain 
doubtful, especially as it was openly said in St. 
Petersburg, in Belgrade, and elsewhere that the 
destruction of Austria-Hungary was imminent. 

Doubtless the Servian agitation was being 
briskly maintained, but it is admitted now that 
the murders of the Archduke and his wife were 
due to Bosnian revenge. One of the assassins 
had, in fact, previously been described by Austria 
to Servia as a " harmless individual." (See 
English White Paper.) It is the tradition of the 
Austrians to behave infamously to their subject- 
races. The imminence of the dissolution of the 
Hapsburg Empire is one of the most intelligent 
forecasts in the book. 

As soon as the Balkan troubles began, Austria- 
Hungary had been obliged to put a large part of 
her army in readiness for war, because the Russians 
and Servians had mobilized on their frontiers. 
The Germans felt that what was a danger for 
their ally was also a danger for them, and that 
they must do all in their power to maintain Austria- 
Hungary in the position of a great power. They 
felt that this could only be done by keeping with 



How the War Came About 25 

their ally perfect faith and by great railitary 
strength, so that Russia might possibly be deterred 
from war and peace be preserved, or else, that in 
case war was forced upon them, that they could 
wage it with honor and success. 

During the Balkan war Austria-Hungary had 
been obliged to keep a number of men under 
arms, because Russia had felt compelled to do so, 
and Servia v/as, of course, one of the combatants. 
^One can understand that Germany on her part 
had to keep herself so ready for war that Russia 
might be deterred from it. But she was anxious 
not to be drawn into it herself. The time was not 
ripe. 

Now it was clear in Berlin that in view of the 
Russian and Servian preparations Austria-Hungary 
in case of a war would be obliged to use a great 
part of her forces against Servia, and therefore 
would have to send against Russia fewer troops 
than would have been possible imder the condi- 
tions formerly prevailing in Europe. Formerly, 
even European Turkey could have been counted 
upon for assistance, that after her recent defeat 
seemed very doubtful. These reasons and con- 
siderations which were solely of a defensive nature 
led to the great German military bills of the last 
two years. Also Austria-Hungary was obliged to 
increase its defensive strength. 

It may be conceded that the reason why Ger- 
many has increased her military strength so much 



26 The Real Truth About Germany 

during the last two years is partly due to the fact 
that Austria would be obliged to use so much of 
her forces against Servia that she is no longer a 
balance against Russia. Much more was it due 
to the fact that Turkey, whom Germany reckoned 
as a member of the Triple All ance, had been 
seriously crippled. 

Whoever considers carefully the course of 
events that has been sketched here, will pronounce 
the assertions of our enemies that Germany 
wanted the war, ridiculous and absurd. On the 
contrary, it can be said that Germany never 
before endeavored more eagerly to preserve peace 
than during the last few years. Germany had 
plenty of opportunities to attack and good oppor- 
tunities to boot, for we knew for years that the 
army of France was no more ready than that of 
Russia. 

The assertion that Germany wanted the war is 
not ridiculous and absurd. We have plenty of 
reasons for knowing that Germany not only 
wanted war, but meant to have it. During the 
past year she had imported vast quantities of 
wheat from Canada. She had uniforms ready of 
the new field-service gray for four million men the 
moment they were called to the colors, and she 
had raised far more than the fifty millions in- 
tended from the special levy on property. The 
fact that she had not attacked the Allies before 
this, in spite of the knowledge that they were not 
ready, is not conclusive. If they were not ready, 



How the War Came About 27 

neither was her fleet, and she was waiting for the 
minute when circumstances would be more 
against them. In France, for instance, there was 
a tendency in politics which boded ill for keeping 
up military preparations, as was shown in her 
difficulties over forming Governments in the past 
year. 

The teachings of von Bernhardi in his " Ger- 
many and the Next War," and similar writers, 
added to the behavior of the Emperor in the 
present crisis, seem to prove that his reiterated 
assertion that the preservation of peace was his 
principal aim was accompanied by the mental 
reservation until the moment that Germany could 
snatch an advantage by breaking it. 

But the Germans are not a warlike nation, and 
the German Emperor, with his government, has 
always shown how earnestly he meant his reiter- 
ated assertions, that the preservation of peace 
was his principal aim. He was actuated in this 
by the general consideration of humanity, justice, 
and culture, as well as by the consideration of 
German trade and commerce. This, especially 
the trans-oceanic commerce of Germany, has 
increased from year to year. War, however, 
means the ruin of commerce. Why expose Ger- 
many needlessly to this terrible risk, especially 
as everything in Germany prospered and her 
wealth increased? 

In addition to the pleasure of being considered 
a humane, just and cultured sovereign, he was 



28 The Real Truth About Germany 

doubtless moved by the consideration of German 
trade and commerce. These were increasing by 
leaps and bounds, and war, as the book senten- 
tiously observes, means the ruin of commerce. 
There was every reason why he should not expose 
Germany to these terrible risks until he saw his 
enemies in a quagmire and had only to shoot 
them down. The presentation of the veiled 
ultimatum to Russia in 1909, and Germany's 
behavior over the Agadir crisis in 191 1, are a 
suflSlcient comment on Germany's love of peace. 

No, the German army bills were merely meant 
to protect us against, and prepare us for, the 
attacks of Moscovite barbarism. But nobody in 
Germany has ever doubted for a moment that 
France would attack us at the first Russian signal. 
Since the first days of the Franco-Russian alliance 
things have become entirely reversed : Then France 
wanted to win Russia for a war of revenge against 
Germany; now, on the contrary, France thought 
herself obliged to place her power and her existence 
at the disposal of the Russian lust of conquest. 

Undoubtedly the last increase in the German 
army would not have been necessary had it not 
been for the collapse of Turkey, whom she re- 
garded as a member of the Triple Alliance and 
the increasing military power of Russia, labelled 
by the book " Muscovite barbarism," though 
doubtless the Belgians would have preferred it 
to German civilization. Though the case is stated 
disingenuously, doubtless if Germany was at- 



How the War Came About 29 

tacked, it would be from the Russian frontier, 
not because France formerly wanted to win 
Russia for a war of revenge and had now ceased 
to do so, but, out of gratitude, thought herself 
under an obligation to place her power and her 
existence at the disposal of the Russian lust of 
conquest, but because France was likely at all 
times to want peace, and Russia, having grown 
immensely stronger since she was humiliated by 
Germany in 1909, was likely to strike the bully at 
the first attempt to renew the provocation. 

The weak link in the chain of reasoning is that 
there is no sort of proof either in this pamphlet or 
elsewhere that France and Russia had any 
scheme for attacking Germany. 

In the spring of 1914 the German press reported 
from St. Petersburg detailed accoimts of Russia's 
comprehensive preparations for war. They were 
not denied in Russia, and Paris declared that 
Russia would be ready in two or three years and 
then pursue a policy corresponding to her power; 
France, too, would then be at the height of her 
power. If the German Government had desired 
war, on the strength of these accounts, which 
were true, it could have waged a preventive war 
at once and easily. It did not do so, considering 
that a war is just only when it is forced upon one 
by the enemy. Thus spring went by with the 
atmosphere at high tension. From St. Peters- 
burg and Paris overbearing threats came in in- 
creasing n''.mbers to the effect that the power of 



30 The Real Truth About Germany 

the Dual Alliance was now gigantic and that Ger- 
many and Austria soon would begin to feel it. 
We remained quiet and watchful, endeavoring 
with perseverance and with all our might to win 
over Great Britain to the policy of preserving 
peace. Colonial and economic questions were 
being discussed by the German and English 
Governments, and the cordiality between the 
two great Powers seemed only to be equalled by 
their mutual confidence. 

Here we have a frank declaration. " A war is 
just only when it is forced upon one by the 
enemy." Clearly, then, Germany cannot regard 
this war as just, for so far from being forced upon 
her, she forced it on Russia, who had actually 
come to an amicable agreement with Austria. 

This is an ingenuous confession of Germany 
that she had, owing to the alarming reports of her 
military attache in Russia, known since the spring 
that she must strike now if she was not to lose the 
advantage she had gained in military power by 
the fresh additions she had made to her army 
with the 19 13 levy of fifty millions on hitherto 
untaxed sources (on capital instead of income). 
This fifty millions, or possibly more, had brought 
Germany to the height of her possible military 
power, and the other countries, though they had 
tried to take corresponding steps to increase their 
power, had not yet obtained full value out of them. 
Therefore, Germany's chance had come. 

For a few months Germany delayed having 
" a quarrel forced on her by the enemy " — in this 



How the War Came About 31 

instance it was Russia from whom she desired a 
" casus belli," while she was endeavoring to 
detach Great Britain from the Triple Entente. 
Having this in her mind, her relations with 
Britain on Colonial and other questions were 
more cordial than they had been for a long time 
past. In July , Germany either considered that she 
had achieved her end with Great Britain or that it 
never would be achieved (probably the former, 
as she was very badly served by her diplomats 
throughout), and inspired Austria's ultimatum to 
Servia. At any rate, she knew that Great Britain 
would sympathize with Austria over the constant 
pin-pricks and provocation which she had re- 
ceived from Servia, and that, if it could be made 
to appear that the war was all concerning Servia, 
the British Government would find the country 
very difficult to move. The famous poster of 
"John Bull"—" To Hell with Servia ! "—voiced 
the sentiment of the country before the whole of 
the situation was understood. The murder of the 
Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife gave 
the War-party in Germany the chance they 
wanted. Without it they might have tried to 
make some other incident, but would probably 
not have succeeded. 

Then on the 28th of June occurred that fright- 
ful assassination by Servians of the successor to 
the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Francis 
Ferdinand. 

All the civilized world sympathized with Aus- 
tria after the dastardly murder of the Archduke, 



32 The Real Truth About Germany 

who lost his life by a truly imperial intrepidity. 
But it was admitted later, that it was the work 
of Bosnians, who had been forced to become 
subjects of Austria against their will, and not 
Servians. 

The Greater-Servia propaganda of action had 
put aside the man who was especially hated in 
Servia as the powerful exponent of Austro-Hun- 
garian unity and strength. This murder is the 
real cause of the present European war. Austria- 
Hungary was able to prove to a shuddering world 
a few days after the murder, that it had been 
prepared and planned systematically, yea, that 
the Servian Government had been cognizant of 
the plan. 

The murder of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand 
and his wife was not the real cause of the present 
war. There is nothing to show that the Servian 
Government was concerned in it in the smallest 
degree; it was the result of the annexation of 
Bosnia and the Herzegovina five years before. 
Although the bomb came from Servia, because it 
was not easy for the murderers to obtain their 
materials on Austrian soil, the murder was pri- 
marily an act of revenge for Austrian oppression 
of its Slav subjects, however it developed politi- 
cally. It would be almost as reasonable to assert 
that the murder was engineered by Germany in 
order to have European opinion on the side of the 
Teutonic Alliance in the war which they were 
about to start. General von Bernhardi would be 
quite capable of coining one of his admirable 



How the War Came About 33 

epigrams to show that this was what a modern 
Machiavelli was bound to advise. The murder 
was not the cause of the war; whoever planned 
it, Germany seized upon it as a heaven-sent 
justification. 

The immense extent of the Servian revolution- 
ary organization in the provinces of Southern 
Austria, the warlike spirit of the Servians and its 
instigation by Russia and France imposed upon 
the Vienna Government the duty to insist upon 
quiet and peace within and without its borders. 

No reasonable man could say that it may not 
have been necessary for Austria to insist on a 
definite cessation of the Servian revolutionary 
organization in its southern provinces, backed as 
it was by the great military qualities of the Ser- 
vian nation on its borders. It cannot have been 
instigated by Russia, much less by France, or 
Russia would not have pressed Servia to submit 
to Austria's unconscionably unreasonable de- 
mands when it was quite certain that Austria 
could not reduce the Switzerland of the Balkans 
without many months of fighting and a battle or 
two of the kind which sent her flying out of Servia 
in August. 

It addressed to the Servian Government a 
number of demands which aimed at nothing but 
the suppression of the anti-Austrian propaganda. 

A perusal of the ultimatum addressed by Aus- 
tria to the Servian Government will not confirm 
this view. 



34 The Real Truth About Germany 



AUSTRIA'S ULTIMATUM 
TO SERVIA 



THE SERVIAN REPLY 



"To achieve this end the 
Imperial and Royal Govern- 
ment sees itself compelled to 
demand from the Royal Ser- 
vian Government a formal 
assurance that it condemns this 
dangerous propaganda against 
the Monarchy ; in other words, 
the whole series of tendencies, 
the ultimate aim of which is to 
detach from the Monarchy 
territories belonging to it, and 
that it undertakes to suppress 
by every means this criminal 
and terrorist propaganda. 

"In order to give a formal 
character to this undertaking 
the Royal Servian Government 
shall publish on the front page 
of its 'Official Journal' of 
the 26th June (13th July), 
the following declaration: 

"'The Royal Government 
of Servia condemns the propa- 
ganda directed against Austria- 
Hungary — i. e., the general ten- 
dency of which the final aim 
is to detach from the Austro- 
Hungarian Monarchy terri- 
tories belonging to it, and it 
sincerely deplores the fatal 
consequence of these criminal 
proceedings. 

"'The Royal Government 
regrets that Servian officers 
and functionaries participated 
in the above-mentioned pro- 



"The Royal Government 
has received the notification of 
the Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
ment of the loth inst., and is 
convinced that its answer will 
remove every misunderstand- 
ing that threatens to disturb 
the pleasant neighborly rela- 
tions between the Austro- 
Hungarian Monarchy and the 
Servian Kingdom. 

"The Royal Government is 
certain that in dealing with 
the great neighboring mon- 
archy these protests have 
under no pretexts been renewed 
which formerly were made 
both in the Skupshtina and 
in explanations and negotia- 
tions of responsible representa- 
tives of the State, and which, 
through the declaration of the 
Servian Government of March 
i8th, 1909, were settled; fur- 
thermore, that since that time 
none of the various successive 
Governments of the kingdom, 
nor any of its officers, has 
made an attempt to change the 
political and legal conditions 
set up in Bosnia and Herzego- 
vina. The Royal Government 
is certain that the Austro- 
Hungarian Government has 
made no representations of any 
kind along this line except in 
the case of a textbook concern- 



How the War Came About 35 



paganda, and thus compro- 
mised the good neighborly- 
relations to which the Royal 
Government was solemnly 
pledged by its declaration of 
the 31st March, 1909. 

'"The Royal Government, 
which disapproves and repu- 
diates all idea of interfering or 
attempting to interfere with 
the destinies of the inhabitants 
of any part whatsoever of 
Austria-Hungary, considers it 
its duty formally to warn 
officers and functionaries, and 
the whole population of the 
kingdom, that henceforward it 
will proceed with the utmost 
rigor against persons who 
may be guilty of such machina- 
tions, which it will use all its 
efforts to anticipate and 
suppress.* 

"This declaration shall sim- 
ultaneously be communi- 
cated to the Royal Army as an 
order of the day by His 
Majesty the King and shall be 
published in the 'Official Bulle- 
tin * of the Army. 



ing which the Austro-Hunga- 
rian Government received an 
entirely satisfactory reply. Ser- 
via, during the Balkan crisis, 
gave evidence in numerous 
cases of her pacific and tem- 
perate policies, and it will be 
thanks to Servia alone and the 
sacrifices that she alone made 
in the interest of European 
peace if that peace continue. 

"The Royal Government 
cannot be held responsible for 
utterances of a private char- 
acter such as newspaper articles 
and the peaceful work of so- 
cieties, utterances which are 
quite ordinary in almost all 
countries, and which are not 
generally under State control, 
especially since the Royal 
Government, in the solution 
of a great number of questions 
that came up between Servia 
and Austria-Hungary, showed 
much consideration as a result 
of which most of these ques- 
tions were settled in the best 
interests of the progress of the 
two neighboring countries. 

* ' The Royal Government was 
therefore painfully surprised 
to hear the contention that 
Servian subjects had taken part 
in the preparations for the 
murder committed in Serajevo. 
It had hoped to be invited to 
cooperate in the investigations 
following this crime, and was 
prepared, in order to prove the 



36 The Real Truth About Germany 



entire correctness of its acts, 
to proceed against all persons 
concerning whom it had re- 
ceived information. 

"In conformity with the 
wish of the Austro-Hungarian 
Government, the Royal Gov- 
ernment is prepared to turn 
over to the court, regardless of 
station or rank, any Servian 
subject concerning whose par- 
ticipation in the crime at 
Serajevo proofs may be given 
to it. The Government pledges 
itself especially to publish on 
the first page of the official 
organ of July 26th the follow- 
ing declaration: 

'"The Royal Servian Gov- 
ernment condemns every pro- 
paganda that may be directed 
against Austria-Hungary; that 
is to say, all efforts designed 
ultimately to sever territory 
from the Austro-Hungarian 
Monarchy, and it regrets sin- 
cerely the vSad consequences of 
these criminal machinations. ' 

"The Royal Government re- 
grets that, in accordance with 
advices from the Austro-Hun- 
garian Government, certain 
Servian officers and function- 
aries are taking an active part 
in the present propaganda, 
and that they have thereby 
jeopardized the pleasant neigh- 
borly relations to the main- 



How the War Came About 37 



"The Royal Servian Gov- 
ernment further undertakes: 

**i. To suppress any pub- 
lication which incites to hatred 
and contempt of the Austro- 
Hungarian Monarchy and the 
general tendency of which is 
directed against its territorial 
integrity; 



" 2 . To dissolve immediate- 
ly the society styled Narodna 
Odbrana, to confiscate all its 
means of propaganda, and to 
proceed in the same manner 
against other societies and 
their branches in Servia which 
engage in propaganda against 



tenance of which the Royal 
Government was formally 
pledged by the declaration of 
March 31st, 1909. 

"The Government (what 
follows here is similar to the 
text demanded). 

"The Royal Government 
further pledges itself: 

"i. To introduce a provi- 
sion in the press law on the 
occasion of the next regular 
session of the Skupshtina, 
according to which instigations 
to hatred and contempt of the 
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, 
as well as any publication 
directed in general against the 
territorial integrity of Austria- 
Hungary, shaU be punished 
severely. 

"The Government pledges 
itself, on the occasion of the 
coming revision of the Con- 
stitution, to add to Article 
XXII. a clause permitting the 
confiscation of publications, 
the confiscation of which, 
under the present Article XXII. 
of the Constitution, would be 
impossible. 

"2. The Government pos- 
sesses no proof — and the Note 
of the Austro-Hungarian Gov- 
ernment provides it with none 
— that the * Narodna Odbrana * 
Society and other similar asso- 
ciations have up to the present 
committed any criminal acts 



38 The Real Truth About Germany 



the Austro-Hungarian Mon- 
archy. The Royal Govern- 
ment shall take the necessary 
measures to prevent the socie- 
ties dissolved from continuing 
their activity under another 
name and form; 

"3. To eliminate without 
delay from public instruction 
in Servia, both as regards the 
teaching body and also as 
regards the methods of instruc- 
tion, everything that serves, 
or might serve, to foment the 
propaganda against Austria- 
Hungary ; 

"4. To remove from the 
military service, and from the 
administration in general, all 
officers and functionaries guilty 
of propaganda against the 
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 
whose names and deeds the 
Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
ment reserves to itself the 
right of communicating to the 
Royal Government; 



"5. To accept the collabo- 
ration in Servia of representa- 
tives of the Austro-Hungarian 
Government in the suppression 
of the subversive movement 



through any of their members. 
Nevertheless, the Royal Gov- 
ernment will accept the de- 
mand of the Austro-Hungarian 
Government and dissolve the 
Narodna Odbrana Society, as 
well as all societies that may 
work against Austria-Hungary. 

"3. The Royal Servian Gov- 
ernment agrees to eliminate 
forthwith from public educa- 
tion in Servia everything that 
might help the propaganda 
against Austria-Hungary, pro- 
vided that the Austro-Hungar- 
ian Government gives it actual 
proof of this propaganda. 

"4. The Royal Govern- 
ment is also ready to discharge 
from military and civil service 
such officers — provided it is 
proved against them by legal 
investigation — who have im- 
plicated themselves in acts 
directed against the territorial 
integrity of the Austro-Hun- 
garian Monarchy; the Govern- 
ment expects that, for the 
purpose of instituting pro- 
ceedings, the Austro-Hunga- 
rian Government will impart 
the names of these officers and 
employes and the acts of which 
they are accused. 

"5. The Royal Servian 
Government must confess that 
it is not quitfe clear as to the 
sense and scope of the desire of 
the Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
ment to the effect that the 



How the War Came About 39 



directed against the territorial 
integrity of the Monarchy; 



"6. To take judicial pro- 
ceedings against accessories to 
the plot of the 28th June who 
are on Servian territory. Dele- 
gates of the Austro-Hungarian 
Government will take part 
in the investigation relating 
thereto; 



"7. To proceed without 
delay to the arrest of Major 
Voija Tankositch and of the 
individual named Milan Cigan- 
ovitch, a Servian State em- 
ploy^, who have been com- 
promised by the results of the 
magisterial enquiry at Serajevo ; 



Royal Servian Government 
bind itself to allow the co- 
operation within its territory 
of representatives of the Aus- 
tro-Hungarian Government, 
but it nevertheless declares 
itself wiUing to permit such 
cooperation as might be in 
conformity with international 
law and criminal procedure, as 
well as with friendly neigh- 
borly relations. 

"6. The Royal Govern- 
ment naturally holds itself 
bound to institute an investiga- 
tion against all such persons 
as were concerned in the plot 
of June I5th-28th, or are 
supposed to have been con- 
cerned in it, and are on Servian 
soil. As to the coSperation of 
special delegates of the Austro- 
Hungarian Government in this 
investigation, the Servian 
Government cannot accept such 
cooperation, since this would 
be a violation of the laws and 
criminal procedure. However, 
in individual cases, information 
as to the progress of the investi- 
gation might be given to the 
Austro-Hungarian delegates. 

"7. On the very evening on 
which your Note arrived the 
Royal Government caused the 
arrest of Major Voislar Tan- 
kosic. But, regarding Milan 
Ciganovic, who is a subject 
of the Austro-Hungarian Mon- 
archy, and who was employed 



40 The Real Truth About Germany 



" 8 . To prevent by effective 
measures the cooperation of 
the Servian authorities in the 
illicit traffic in arms and explo- 
sives across the frontier, to 
dismiss and punish severely the 
officials of the frontier service 
at Schabatz and Loznica guilty 
of having assisted the perpe- 
trators of the Serajevo crime 
by facilitating their passage 
across the frontier; 



"9. To furnish the Impe- 
rial and Royal Government 
with explanations regarding 
the unjustifiable utterances of 
high Servian officials, both in 
Servia and abroad, who, not- 
withstanding their official posi- 
tion, did not hesitate after the 
crime of the 28th June to 
express themselves in inter- 
views in terms of hostility to 



until June 15th (as candidate) 
in the Department of Railroads 
it has not been possible to 
arrest this man up till now, for 
which reason a warrant has 
been issued against him. 

"The Austr o-Hungarian 
Government is requested, in 
order that the investigation may 
be made as soon as possible, to 
make known in the specified 
form what grounds of suspicion 
exist, and the proofs of guilt 
collected at the investigation 
in Serajevo. 

"8. The Servian Govern- 
ment will increase the severity 
and scope of its measures 
against the smuggling of arms 
and explosives. 

"It goes without saying that 
it will at once start an investi- 
gation and mete out severe 
punishment to the frontier 
officials of the Sabac-Loznica 
line who failed in their duty 
and allowed those responsible 
for the crime to cross the 
frontier. 

"9. The Royal Govern- 
ment is willing to give explana- 
tions of the statements made in 
interviews by its officials in 
Servia and foreign countries 
after the crime, and which, 
according to the Austro-Hun- 
garian Government, were anti- 
Austrian, as soon as the said 
Government indicates where 
these statements were made, 



How the War Came About 41 



the Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
ment; and finally, 



"10. To notify the Impe- 
rial and Royal Government 
without delay of the execution 
of the measures comprised 
under the preceding heads. 



and provides proofs that such 
statements were actually made 
by the said officials. The Royal 
Government will itself take 
steps to collect the necessary 
proofs and means of trans- 
mission for this purpose. 

"10. The Royal Govern- 
ment will, in so far as this has 
not already occurred in this 
Note, inform the Austro-Hun- 
garian Government of the 
taking of the measures con- 
cerning the foregoing matters, 
as soon as such measures have 
been ordered and carried out. 

"The Royal Servian Govern- 
ment is of the opinion that it 
is mutually advantageous not 
to hinder the settlement of this 
question, and therefore, in case 
the Austro-Hungarian Gov- 
ernment should not consider 
itself satisfied with this answer, 
it is ready as always to accept 
a peaceful solution, either by 
referring the decision of this 
question to the international 
tribunal at The Hague, or by 
leaving it to the great Powers 
who cooperated in the prepar- 
ation of the explanation given 
by the Servian Government on 
the I7th-3ist March, 1909." 

In the afternoon of July 25th Mr. Crackanthorpe, the British 
Representative in Servia, telegraphed : 

"Belgrade, 

"July 25th, 19 14. 
"The Council of Ministers are now drawing up their reply to 



" The Austro-Hungarian Gov- 
ernment expects the reply of 
the Royal Government at the 
latest by six o'clock on Satur- 
day evening, the 25th July." 



42 The Real Truth About Germany 

the Austrian Note. I am informed by the Under-Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs that it will be most conciliatory and will 
meet the Austrian demands in as large a measure as is possible. 
"The following is a brief summary of the projected reply: 
'"The Servian Government consent to the publication of a 
declaration in the Official Gazette. The ten points are accepted 
with reservations. Servian Government declares themselves 
ready to agree to a mixed commission of enquiry so long as the 
appointment of the commission can be shown to be in accordance 
with international usage. They consent to dismiss and prose- 
cute those officers who can be clearly proved to be guilty, and they 
have already arrested the officer referred to in the Austrian Note. 
They are prepared to suppress the Narodna Odbrana. 

'"The Servian Government consider that, unless the Austrian 
Government want war at any cost, they cannot but be content 
with the full satisfaction offered in the Servian reply. ' " 

In the evening, as the Austrian Note had not been agreed to 
unconditionally, he had to supplement his first telegram with the 
following ominous message: 

*' Belgrade, 
"July 25th, 1914. 
"The Austrian Minister left at 6.30. 

"The Government has left for Nish, where the Skupshtina 
will meet on Monday. I am leaving with my other colleagues, 
but the Vice-Consul is remaining in charge of the archives. " 

Servia was on the point of accepting the demand, 
when there arrived a dispatch from St. Petersburg 
and Servia mobiHzed. Then Austria, too, had 
to act. Thus arose the Austro-Servian war. 

To say that Servia was on the point of accepting 
the demands of Austria when she had a dispatch 
from St. Petersburg and mobilized instead, is one 
of the most deliberate misstatements in a book 
which is rich in them. Russia, as this book itself 



How the War Came About 43 

has emphasized, had every reason for desiring 
that there should be no war till 1916, when her 
siege artillery for smashing up German fortresses 
would be ready. In the face of this, it is not 
necessary to adduce the incontrovertible evidence 
of the Czar's love of peace. Also, all the world 
knows what strong pressure Russia brought to 
bear on Servia to make her compose her quarrel 
with Austria. "Then Austria, too, had to act,*' 
says this veracious book. "Thus arose the 
Austro-Servian war." Austria, as Mr. Crackan- 
thorpe's dispatch, quoted on the preceding page, 
shows, meant the war with Servia to take place 
immediately and irrevocably. Otherwise she 
would not have addressed to Servia an ultimatum 
so almost impossible of acceptance by a high- 
spirited and powerful nation — an ultimatum, 
moreover, to which submission had to be made 
within forty-eight hours. The chivalrous and 
peace-loving Count Berchtold, to whom Europe 
owed so much during the Balkan war, let the cat 
out of the bag about this when he said that the 
remonstrances of England came too late. Why 
did they come too late? Austria knew that 
England would take this line the moment the 
matter came to her ears, and could have laid the 
matter before her as much earlier as she chose. 
The remonstrance came too late because Austria 
intended it to come too late. In all human prob- 
ability that phrase, signed by the unwilling hand 
of Austria's Foreign Minister, was the death- 
warrant of the Empire of the Habsburgs. 

It is plain that Austria wished to present Europe 
with a "fait accompli." 



44 The Real Truth About Germany 

But a few days later, the Russian army was 
being mobilized, and the mobilization was begun 
also in France. At the same time, as the German 
White-Book clearly proves, the diplomacy of Rus- 
sia and France asserted its great love of peace 
and tried to prolong the negotiations in order to 
gain time, for, as is well known, the Russian mo- 
bilization proceeds slowly. Germany was waiting, 
and again and again the German Emperor tried 
to win the Czar over to the preservation of peace, 
for he considered him sincere, and thought him 
his personal friend. Emperor William was to be 
cruelly disappointed. He finally saw himself 
obliged to proclaim the state of war for Germany. 

Germany seems to have been anxious, before 
her brief connection with China was extinguished, 
to try her hand at Chinese diplomacy. "A few 
days later," says this book, "the Russian army 
was being mobilized, and mobilization was begun 
also in France." This was absolutely untrue 
as regards France. "The diplomacy of Russia 
and France asserted its great love of peace, and 
tried to prolong the negotiations . • . to gain 
time. . . . The Russian mobilization proceeds 
slowly." 

The committee, who produced this book, are 
well aware that at any moment one word from the 
German Emperor would have brought Austria 
to a full-stop. France was not mobilizing, and 
did not mobilize till a matter of hours before the 
war. The Kaiser knew that Russia would mobi- 
lize unless she could be bluffed into submission. 



How the War Came About 45 

He was guilty of playing with the peace of Europe 
as if it had been a hand at poker. 

The Kaiser complains of the behavior of the 
Czar. There was once a political play presented 
at the Criterion Theater, in which a very militant 
Mr. Arthur Bourchier complained of being hec- 
tored by a very pacific Mr. Weedon Grossmith. 
" Wild horses would not persuade me," said Mr. 
Bourchier. " Am I those wild horses?" asked 
Mr. Grossmith. When his bluff failed, the Kaiser 
wept crocodile's tears and proclaimed a " state of 
war " for Germany, which is the code word for 
mobilization. The damning and conclusive an- 
swer to this piece of hypocrisy is the revelation 
of Sir Maurice de Bunsen that the German ulti- 
matum to Russia was presented " after " Austria 
had given way and accepted the Russian demands. 

But at that time the Russian and French armies 
were already in a state of complete mobilization. 

As has been shown, the French army was not 
mobilized, nor were its mobilization arrange- 
ments at all perfect. Russia had mobilized upon 
the Austrian frontier, having divined that nothing 
but panic would stop the thick-headed Austrians 
from proceeding with the campaign against Servia 
which they had promised themselves. 

At that time the London Daily Graphic wrote 
the following article, which shows how an English 
paper that was only slightly friendly to Germany 
judged of the situation at the time : 



46 The Real Truth About Germany 

'' The Mobilization Mystery. 

**A general mobilization has been ordered in 
Russia, and Germany has responded by proclaim- 
ing martial law throughout the Empire. We 
are now enabled to measure exactly the narrow 
and slippery ledge which still stands between 
Europe and the abyss of Armageddon. Will the 
Russian order be acted upon in the provinces 
adjoining the German frontier? If it is, then the 
work of the peacemakers is at an end, for Germany 
is bound to reply with a mobilization of her own 
armed force, and a rush to the frontiers on all 
sides must ensue. We confess that we are unable 
to understand the action of Russia in view of 
the resumption of the negotiations with Austria. 
It is not likely that these negotiations have been 
resumed unless both sides think that there is yet 
a chance of agreement, but if this is the case, why 
the mobilization which goes far beyond the limits 
of necessary precaution, and is, indeed, calculated 
to defeat the efforts of the diplomatists, however 
promising they may be? There may, of course, 
be a satisfactory explanation, but as the matter 
stands, it is inexplicable, and is all the more re- 
grettable because it is calculated — we feel sure 
unjustly — to cast doubts on the loyalty and 
straightforwardness of the Russian Government." 

The " Daily Graphic *' was the only paper, out- 
side of the Ostrich Press, which loves to bury 



How the War Came About 47 

its head in the sand when war is on the horizon, 
which questioned Russians right to mobilize. 
Russia mobilized to save the peace of Europe. 
There was not the smallest doubt that if she re- 
fused to be humiliated without being ready to 
fight, Germany would declare war at once. Noth- 
ing but the spectacle of the strong man armed 
and standing on the threshold could scare off 
the burglar who was threatening the House of 
Peace. 

When Russia had let pass the time limit set by 
Germany, when France had answered that she 
would act according to her own interests, then the 
German Empire had to mobilize its army and go 
ahead. Before one German soldier had crossed 
the German frontier, a large number of aeroplanes 
came flying into our country across the neutral 
territory of Belgium and Luxemburg, without a 
word of warning on the part of the Belgian Gov- 
ernment. At the same time the German Govern- 
ment learned that the French were about to enter 
Belgium. 

" Truth about Germany " sounds the top-note 
of hypocrisy with these words: "When Russia 
had let pass the time limit set by Germany, when 
France had answered that she would act accord- 
ing to her own interests, then the German Empire 
had to mobilize its army and go ahead." (Why 
should Germany go ahead with Austria's quarrel 
after Austria herself had come to an agreement 
with Russia? Of course, it is patent that Ger- 



48 The Real Truth About Germany 

many feared, after all, her efforts, there WOULD 
BE NO WAR.) What did the bully expect? 
He had issued an impudent ultimatum to the 
masters of twelve millions of soldiers, irresistibly 
recalling the story of Canute when he had his 
throne set below high-water mark as the tide was 
coming in. It sounds like a piece of ill-timed 
humor that aeroplanes after this flew across neu- 
tral territory without a word of warning on the 
part of the Belgian Government. The Belgian 
Government may not have been looking out of 
their bedroom windows. 

The best reply to all this talk of Belgian neu- 
trality having been infringed by France and 
Belgium is that it was never suggested at the time 
when Great Britain asked Germany her intentions 
about Belgium; and it would have made a very 
plausible reply. But it clearly had not even been 
invented then, and is an afterthought " ad hoc " 
for American consumption. France had not 
received the necessary invitation from Belgium 
to send her troops till August 5th or 6th. The 
French Ambassador in England had it telegraphed 
to him on August 6th. German troops had 
already entered Belgium on August 4th. 

Then our Government with great reluctance 
had to decide upon requesting the Belgian Govern- 
ment to allow our troops to march through its 
territory. Belgium was to be indemnified after 
the war, was to retain its sovereignty and integrity. 
Belgium protested, at the same time allowing, 
by an agreement with France, that the French 



How the War Came About 49 

troops might enter Belgium. After all this and 
not till France and Belgium itself had broken the 
neutrality, our troops entered the neutral territory. 
Germany wanted nothing from Belgium, but had 
to prevent that Belgian soil be used as a gate of 
entrance into German territory. 

To say that " at the same time the German 
Government learned that the French were about 
to enter Belgium" is another of the most colossal 
misstatements of a book which handles the truth 
very carelessly. The British Government, still 
in doubt as to whether it should enter the arena, 
on July 31st demanded categorical assurances 
from the French and German Governments that 
they would respect the neutrality of Belgium. 
The French Government, without any reserve and 
with obvious sincerity, replied in the affirmative 
at once. The German Secretary of State said 
that he must consult the Emperor and the Chan- 
cellor before he could possibly answer. His 
insincerity was obvious. The Kaiser and the 
Chancellor did not answer, and the British Am- 
bassador delivered his ultimatum on August 4th. 

There was this awkwardness about their an- 
swering Great Britain — that they were requesting, 
or had made up their minds to request, the Bel- 
gian Government to allow German troops to 
march through its territory. Belgium was to be 
indemnified after the war, to retain its sover- 
eignty and integrity and all the rest of it. Belgium 
refused point-blank, and said that it would 
defend its rights as a sovereign power with all 

4 



50 The Real Truth About Germany 

its forces, " Truth about Germany " was not 
"Truth about Belgium," for it says: "Not till 
France and Belgium itself had broken the neu- 
trality, did German troops enter Belgium." This 
is an absolute lie, about on a par with a statement 
in the next sentence : " Germany wanted nothing 
from Belgium, but had to prevent that Belgian soil 
be used as a gate of entrance into German 
territory." 

There is abundant evidence to prove that Ger- 
many had arranged to invade France through 
Belgian territory. Bernhardi and other German 
military writers have always told us this plan would 
be pursued, and we have good reason to know the 
soundness of Bernhardi*s forecasts! In the 
middle of July a warning came to Americans in 
Brussels from San Francisco, telling them to get 
out of Belgium by the end of the month, if they 
wanted to get out at all. 



Little has as yet been said of Great Britain. 
It was Germany's conviction that the sincerity 
of Britain's love for peace could be trusted. At 
any rate Sir Edward Grey and Mr. Asquith as- 
serted again and again in the course of the last 
few years that England wished friendly relations 
with Germany and never would lend its support 
to a Franco-Russian attack on Germany.- Now 
this attack had been made; Germany was on the 
defensive against two powerful enemies. What 
would Great Britain do about it? That was the 
question. 



How the War Came About 51 

The most naive confession in the whole book 
is: "It was Germany's conviction that the 
sincerity of Great Britain's love for peace could 
be trusted." Can anyone doubt that British 
blindness and folly were reckoned as an asset to 
Germany when the Kaiser determined on the war. 
England to Germany was Ethelred the Unready. 
That was the chief of the diplomatic blunders of 
the man upon whom the mantle of Bismarck had 
fallen. We will allow that the British Prime 
Minister and Foreign Minister promised the 
German Ambassador every time he asked them 
that England would never lend its support to a 
Franco-Russian attack on Germany, But we 
can be much more certain of the reply which the 
German Ambassador would have received if he 
had asked would Great Britain tolerate Ger- 
many's picking a quarrel with France and Russia 
to inaugurate a war of conquest, which was, in 
effect, asking Great Britain to wait for her turn 
until her Allies were overwhelmed. 

Great Britain asked in return for its neutrality 
that the German forces should not enter Belgium. 
In other words, it asked that Germany should 
allow the French and Belgian troops to form on 
Belgian territory for a march against our frontier! 
This we could not allow. It would have been 
suicidal. 

It was in this context that Chancellor von 
Bethmann-HoUweg immortalized himself with his 
phrase, " a scrap of paper." That, he gave the 
world to understand, was the German definition 



52 The Real Truth About Germany 

of a treaty. When Great Britain, as the price of 
her neutrality, demanded that Germany should 
respect the integrity of Belgium, which she, 
equally with Great Britain, had guaranteed, the 
candid German inquired if Great Britain was 
going to war for a " scrap of paper " ! Great 
Britain announced that she would go to war if 
Germany did not make up her mind to respect 
that scrap of paper before midnight. And the 
United States made a note of the phrase to guide 
it in its future diplomatic negotiations with Ger- 
many. It was in vain that Germany protested 
that its neutrality would allow the French and 
Belgian troops to form on Belgian territory for a 
march against the German frontier. The whole 
thing is a lie, but the phrase " and Belgian 
troops," contains an insult too — to suggest that 
Belgium meant to attack Germany is a piece of 
colossal impertinence. Unfortunately for Ger- 
many, Great Britain had addressed a similar note 
to France, and France had undertaken categori- 
cally not to enter Belgium unless Germany 
entered it first. It was not until at least a day 
after German troops had invaded Belgium that 
France received any invitation to send troops into 
Belgium. 

The German Government made Great Britain 
in return for its neutrality the following offers : 
We would not attack the northern coast of France, 
we would leave unmolested the maritime commerce 
of France and would indemnify Belgium after the 
war and safeguard its sovereignty and integrity. 



How the War Came About 53 

But Germany greatly desired the neutrality of 
Great Britain, for with Britain at war with her, her 
fleet and her commerce would be confined to a 
handful of fifth-rate ports in the Baltic, so she 
offered in return for British neutrality to leave the 
northern coast of France unmolested, not to take 
any territory from France except her colonies, 
and to indemnify Belgium and safeguard its 
sovereignty and integrity when the war was over. 
To this Mr. Asquith made his famous reply in the 
House of Commons on August 6th: 

"INFAMOUS PROPOSALS. 

*'What did that proposal amount to? In the first place, 
it meant this: that behind the back of France, which was not 
to be made a party to these communications at all, we should 
have given, if we had assented to them, free license to 
Germany to annex in the event of a successful war the whole 
of the extra-European dominions and possessions of France. 
What did it mean as regards Belgium? If Belgium, when 
she addressed, as she did address in these last days, her 
moving appeal to us to fulfil our solemn guarantee of her 
neutrality, what reply should we have given? What reply 
could we have given to that Belgian appeal? We should 
have been obliged to say that without her knowledge we had 
bartered away to the Power that was threatening her our 
obligations to keep our plighted word. (Loud and prolonged 
cheers.) 

"Sir, the House has read, and the country has read, in the 
course of the last few hours the most pathetic address by 
the King of the Belgians to his people. (Cheers.) I do 
not envy the man who could read that appeal with unmoved 
heart. (Cheers.) The Belgians are fighting, they are 
losing their lives. (Loud cheers.) What would have been 
the position of Great Britain to-day in the face of that 
spectacle if we had assented to this infamous proposal? 
(Loud and prolonged cheers.) 

"Yes, and what were we to get in return? For the 



54 The Real Truth About Germany 

betrayal of our friends and the dishonor of our obligations, 
what were we to get in return? We were to get a promise — 
nothing more (laughter) — as to what Germany would do in 
certain eventualities, a promise, be it observed — I am sorry 
to have to say it, but it must be put upon record — a promise 
given by a Power which was at that very moment announcing 
its intention to violate its own Treaty obligations (cheers), 
and inviting us to do the same. I can only say, if we had 
even dallied or temporized with such an offer, we, as a 
Government, should have covered ourselves with dishonor. 
We should have betrayed the interests of this country of 
which we are the trustees. (Cheers.) 

"I am glad to turn to the reply which my right honorable 
friend (Sir Edward Grey) made, and from which I will read 
to the House one or two of the more salient passages, because 
this document, No. loi, puts on record a week ago the atti- 
tude of the British Government, and, as I believe, of the 
British people. My right honorable friend says: ' His 
Majesty's Government cannot for a moment entertain the 
Chancellor's proposal that they should bind themselves to 
neutrality on such terms. What he asks us is in effect to 
engage to stand by while French colonies are taken and 
France is beaten so long as Germany does not take French 
territory as distinct from the colonies. From the material 
point of view '—my right honorable friend (Sir Edward Grey) 
uses, as he always does, very temperate language — * such 
a proposal is unacceptable; for France, without further 
territory in Europe being taken from her, could be so crushed 
as to lose her position as a Great Power and become sub- 
ordinate to German policy.' 

"That is the material aspect. He proceeds: * Altogether 
apart from that it would be a disgrace to us to make this 
bargain with Germany at the expense of France, a disgrace 
from which the good name of this country would never 
recover. (Loud cheers.) The Chancellor also in- effect 
asks us to bargain away whatever obligations or interests 
we have as regards the neutrality of Belgium. We could 
not entertain that bargain either. ' " 

In spite of this Great Britain declared war on 



How the War Came About 55 

Germany and sides to-day with those Continental 
Powers that have united for our destruction, in 
order that Muscovite barbarism may rule Europe. 
We know that Germany did not deserve such 
treatment on the part of Great Britain, and do 
not believe that Great Britain by this action did 
a service to humanity and civilization. 

Great Britain did not join in the war in order 
that Muscovite barbarism might rule Europe, but 
to rid Europe's long-suffering civilization from 
German militarism which sat on its neck and 
was choking it, like the Old Man of the Sea in 
the story of " Sindbad the Sailor." 

Probably not even Austria, which did not de- 
clare war on Great Britain for a good many days 
afterwards, would dispute that Germany richly 
deserved this treatment from Great Britain. The 
United States, which, as this book observes, is 
the only great neutral Power, has preached from 
nearly every platform, pulpit, and newspaper office 
on the North American continent, that Great 
Britain, like the Good Samaritan, came to the 
rescue of Humanity and Civilization instead of 
standing by on the other side of the road while 
thieves massacred their victims. 

To-day we are facing hard facts. Germany has 
to fight for her existence. She will fight knowing 
that the great Powers beyond the ocean will do 
her justice as soon as they know the truth. 

What Germany may expect from the United 
States is the Judgment of Solomon. 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER III 

Letter in The Times, September 22nd, 19 14: 

"RUSSIA V. PRUSSIA. 

**But what are such facts as these to the profound intuitions of 
Mr. Keir Hardie and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald? On the other 
hand, they deplore our conflict with the cultivated and amiable 
Prussian Empire. Its huge fleet, its inexhaustible store of sub- 
marine mines, its carefully concealed preparation of hundreds of 
bomb-dropping aeroplanes and Zeppelins, its great system of 
strategic railways upon the Belgian and Polish frontiers, its 
secret manufacture of vast siege-guns, its incessant increases of 
its stupendous army, its leap — prepared and armed — into this 
war, they regard as evidence of an excessive anxiety to keep the 
peace. Had we but let Germany/ finish ' Belgium and France, and 
reduce Russia to the present position of Austria in a Three- 
Emperor League, then the peace of the world, the security of 
Britain, the welfare of our millions of workers would have been 
assured for ever. We might then have given up building more 
warships, confident in the Kaiser's secured good-will. But for 
the wickedness of Sir Edward Grey. 

"We protest against this insult to the intelligence and self- 
respect of our fellow Britons which Mr. Hardie and Mr. Mac- 
Donald are offering, and we protest still more strongly against the 
stupid, ignorant, mischievous misrepresentation of a great, kindly, 
friendly people upon which their case is based. 

*'C. Hagberg Wright. 

"H.G.Wells." 

From The Times, August 6th, 1914. 

"New York, August 4th. 
"... The American Press holds that the German Emperor 
has proved himself the enemy of civilization, and it does not 

56 



Foreword to Chapter III 57 

hesitate to say so in the strongest terms it can command. The 
Chicago Tribune decorates its article on the Kaiser's invocation of 
Divine assistance with the single word 'Blasphemy.' The New 
York Times gives its complete editorial endorsement to the words 
of the Paris Temps that Russians, Frenchmen, and Englishmen 
must stand united against 'the powers of brigandage.' In this 
war, says the New York World, Germany and Austria have no 
sympathizers even among the neutrals. It continues: 

***The enlightened opinion of the whole world has turned 
against the two Kaisers as it turned against Napoleon when he 
sought to make himself autocrat of Europe. German autocracy 
is isolated, but what was begun as a war of autocracy is not un- 
likely to end as a war of revolution, with thrones crumbling and 
dynasties ending in exile. Civilization cannot rest at the mercy 
of despotism, and the~ welfare of mankind is not to be made the 
plaything of autocracy. In the vanguard of the twentieth 
century in most respects, Germany has straggled back to the 
seventeenth century politically. The curse of mediaeval govern- 
ment has hung over her noblest achievements. Every impulse 
toward political freedom has been beaten back by the Mailed 
Fist. Austria's quarrel with Servia was no affair of the German 
people. Russia's challenge to Austria was no affair of the German 
people. Yet the very fate of the German Empire is thrown into 
the balance in order to halt the march of political freedom in 
Europe. Germany desires to crush, not Russian despotism, but 
French Republicanism. Britain is compelled to make France's 
cause her cause. * " 

From The Times^ August 29th, 1914. 

"Toronto, August 27th. 
"According to Colonel Hughes, Minister of Militia, sixty 
thousand citizens of the United States have offered to enHst in 
the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. These expressed the simple 
desire to fight for the British Empire. Application was even 
made in person to the Militia Department at Ottawa. Of course, 
no Americans could be enrolled. " 



CHAPTER III 

REICHSTAG AND EMPEROR 

ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND RUSSIA, UNTHREATENED 
BY GERMANY, GO TO WAR FOR POLITICAL 
REASONS — GERMANY DEFENDS HER INDEPEND- 
ENCE AND FIGHTS FOR HER VERY EXISTENCE, 
FOR HER FUTURE AS A GREAT POWER — HOW 
A PEACEFUL PEOPLE WERE IMBUED WITH THE 
SPIRIT OF WAR. 

IT may be well to quote the terms in which 
France and Russia were unthreatened by 
Germany. They are confessed by the writers of 
this book only two or three pages back in these 
words: "When Russia had let pass the time 
limit set by Germany, when France had answered 
that she would act according to her own inter- 
ests." The German White Paper on the war 
with Russia uses these words: "The Imperial 
Ambassador at St. Petersburg was ordered on the 
afternoon of July 31st to advise the Russian 
Government that Germany had declared a state 
of war as a countermove to the mobilization of the 
Russian army and navy, which would have to be 
followed by mobilization unless Russia ceased her 
military preparations against Germany and Aus- 

58 



Reichstag and Emperor 59 

tria-Hungary within twelve hours, and so advised 
Germany. At the same time, the Imperial 
Ambassador at Paris was directed to request an 
explanation from the French Government within 
eighteen hours as to whether, in the case of a 
Russo-German war, France would remain neu- 
tral." 

When did an ultimatum cease to be a threat? 
But instead of threatening Great Britain, Ger- 
many tried to cheat her. The result is that 
Germany, as the book says, is fighting for her 
very existence. And so are we. 

The last days of the month of July were days 
of anxiety and distress for the German people. 
They hoped that they would be permitted to 
preserve an honorable peace. A few months 
earlier, in 191 3, when the centennial of the war 
for independence from French oppression and the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of Emperor William's 
ascent of the throne had been celebrated, they 
had willingly taken upon their shoulders the great 
sacrifice of the so-called "Wehrvorlage," which 
increased the peace strength of the standing army 
enormously and cost one billion marks. They 
considered it simply as an increase of these peace 
insurance premiums. 

All reasonable people are prepared to admit 
that the German people, as distinct from the 
projectors of the present campaign and the cour- 
tiers of the German Canute, sincerely hoped 
that they would be "permitted to preserve an 



6o The Real Truth About Germany 

honorable peace." And in so doing, they de- 
serve the sympathy of the world. But they must 
have had a genius for self-deception if they 
considered the enormous additions to the army 
and the war levy of fifty millions as "an insur- 
ance premium for peace." It was like giving a 
boy a new gun and a hundred cartridges, and 
telling him on no account to put the cartridges 
into the gun. 

Our diplomats worked hard for the maintenance 
of peace, for the localization of the Austro-Servian 
war. So sure were the leading men of the Empire 
of the preservation of general peace that at the 
beginning of the week which was to bring general 
mobilization they said to each other joyfully: 
"Next week our vacation time begins." But 
they were fearfully disappointed. Russia's unex- 
pected, treacherous mobilization compelled Ger- 
many to draw the sword also. On the evening of 
the first day of August the one word. Mobiliza- 
tion! was flashed by the electric spark all over 
the country. There was no more anxiety and 
uncertainty. Cool, firm resolution at once per- 
meated the entire German folk. The Reichstag 
was called together for an extra session. 

The German method of diplomacy for the 
localization of the Austro-Servian war was a coup 
like the 1909 coup for the localization of Bosnia 
and Herzegovina in the Austrian Empire. The 
bully had threatened again to knock Russia down 
if she interfered. If the leading men of the Ger- 



Reichstag and Emperor 6i 

man Empire were so sure of the preservation of 
general peace, it was because they believed that 
Russia would once more funk a fight. But as the 
book says: "They were fearfully disappointed." 
They call Russia's refusal to be bullied an " un- 
expected, treacherous mobilization." There was 
nothing for Germany to do but to fulfill her threat. 
It must be confessed that when Germany found 
that her challenge to fight was unexpectedly 
accepted, she behaved with the courage and 
dignity of a nation of warriors. 

Three days later, on the anniversary of the 
battles of Weissenburg and Spicheren, the rep- 
resentatives of the German people met. This 
session, which lasted only a few hours, proved 
worthy of the great historical moment marking 
the beginning of such a conflagration as the world 
had never seen before. The railroad lines were 
under military control and used almost exclusively 
for purposes of mobilization. In spite of all such 
difficulties, more than 300 to the 397 deputies 
managed to get to Berlin in time. The rest sent 
word that they were unable to come. On the 
evening of August 3d the Imperial Chancellor 
called the leaders of all parties, including the 
Socialists, to his house and explained to them in 
a concise and impressive statement how frivolously 
Germany had been driven to war. 

If the German Chancellor was able to make " a 
concise and impressive statement," showing 



62 The Real Truth About Germany 

"how frivolously Germany had been driven to 
war," it was a masterpiece of hypocrisy. For, at 
such a crisis, the Emperor must have trusted him 
to a certain extent, and he was therefore in all 
probability pretty fully aware of all the ingenious 
traps laid for England, France, and Russia. He 
must have known of the studied precautions 
which were taken to prevent Servia by any possi- 
bility acceding to the Austrian demand: he must 
have known how the Emperor plotted to ensure 
Russians either accepting the humiliation of al- 
lowing Servia to be crushed, or being compelled 
to fight : he must have known of all the ingenious 
expedients, especially the German Ambassador's 
continued residence in Paris long after the war 
had broken out, in order to lull the French into 
delaying their military preparations : he must have 
known all the Jesuitical reservations made in the 
pourparlers between Germany and England in or- 
der, if possible, to keep England neutral. 

With all this private information in his head he 
had to maintain to the Reichstag that Germany 
had been " driven frivolously to war," and if he 
did it concisely and impressively, he must be a 
master of speaking with his tongue in his cheek. 

But I suspect that the guileless writer of this 
book has done him an injustice. 

At the time of this meeting the unanimous 
acceptance of all war measures by the Reichstag 
was already assured. In numerous conferences 
the heads of the several departments explained 
the contents and meaning of the bills to be sub- 



Reichstag and Emperor 63 

mitted to the Reichstag. The participants of 
the conferences showed already what spirit would 
characterize the next day. The session of the 
Reichstag filled the entire German nation with 
pride and enthusiasm; the Reichstag maintained 
the dignity of the German Empire and the German 
people. 

In greater numbers than ever before, the depu- 
ties, high officers of the army and navy and the 
civil government assembled on August 4th, first 
in houses of worship to pray to God, and then in 
the royal castle of Berlin. The military character 
of the ceremony at the opening of the session 
showed under what auspices this memorable act 
took place. 

We may be sure that this meeting of the great- 
est men in Germany on such an historic occasion 
was impressive and dignified in the highest 
degree. 

The Kaiser entered the hall in the simple gray 
field uniform, without the usual pomp, accom- 
panied by chamberlains and court officials and 
pages in glittering court dresses. Only state 
ministers, generals, and admirals followed him to 
the throne, from where he read his speech, after 
covering his head with his helmet. His voice 
betrayed the strain under which he was laboring. 
Repeatedly he was interrupted by enthusiastic 
applause, and when he closed, a rousing cheer 
thundered through the famous White Hall, some- 



64 The Real Truth About Germany 

thing that had never before occurred since the 
erection of the old castle. Then came a surprise. 
The Emperor laid down the manuscript of his 
speech and continued speaking. From now on 
he knew only Germans, he said, no differences of 
party, creed, religion, or social position, and he 
requested the party leaders to give him their 
hands as a pledge that they all would stand by 
him ''in Not und Tod" — in death and distress. 
This scene was entirely impromptu, and thus so 
much more impressive and touching. 

The Kaiser has, one is sure, suffered from his 
chroniclers, for the German lacks the saving 
sense of humor which is demanded in the British 
or American journalist, and has made his sover- 
eign appear with the adjuncts of the principal 
tenor in an opera and innumerable stage direc- 
tions. I am sure that William II. was in reality 
manly, dignified, and heroic in the highest degree, 
but your German journalist is as crude in his 
methods as the monkish chroniclers of the Middle 
Ages. 

The Kaiser may be theatrical by disposition, 
but on such an occasion, when the moment had 
at last arrived, his exaltation would have him 
feel like a genuine Nibelung. 

And it was hardly over, when the Reichstag 
— an unheard of proceeding in such surroundings 
— began to sing the German national hymn: 
*'Heil Dir im Siegerkranz." The magnificent 
hall, until then only the scene of pompous court 



Reichstag and Emperor 65 

festivities, witnessed an outburst of patriotism 
such as had never been seen there before. To 
the accompaniment of loud cheers, the Kaiser 
walked out, after shaking the hands of the Imperial 
Chancellor and the chief of the General Staff, 
von Moltke. 

One hour later the Reichstag met in its own 
house. The Emperor had begged for quick and 
thorough work. He was not to be disappointed. 
Without any formalities the presiding officers of 
the last session were re-elected — ^in times of peace 
and party strife, this would have been impossible. 
This short curtain-raiser being over, the first act 
of the drama began. Before an overcrowded 
house, the Chancellor described simply and 
clearly the efforts of the Government for the pre- 
servation of peace. He stated cold facts, showing 
unmistakably Russia's double dealing and justi- 
fying Germany's beginning of a war which she 
did not want. The Chancellor had begun in a 
quiet, subdued tone. Then he raised his voice, 
and when, in words that rang through the hall, 
he declared that the entire nation was united the 
deputies and the spectators in the galleries could 
sit still no longer. They rose, with them at first 
some Socialists, then all of them carried away by 
the impulse of the moment; the members of the 
Federal Council, of the Press, Diplomats, and the 
crowds in the galleries joined them. The whole 
multitude cheered and clapped its hands franti- 
cally. It reflected truly the spirit of the whole 



66 The Real Truth About Germany 

nation. The Speaker who, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, would have suppressed the clapping 
of hands as unparliamentary and the demonstra- 
tions of the galleries as undignified, let the patriotic 
outburst go on to its end. 

When the Reichstag met in its own house, it 
did its work with soldierly brevity, though the 
Chancellor was compelled once more to describe 
the duplicity of Germany and ascribe it all to 
Russia. It was of no consequence; everyone 
believed him implicitly, and everyone present 
went mad with joy and patriotism. 

After a short intermission the business meeting 
began. Sixteen war measures had been introduced, 
the most important of which was the one asking 
for five billion marks to carry on the war. The 
leader of the Social Democrats read a statement 
explaining why his party, despite its opposition 
on principle to all Army and Navy appropriations, 
would vote for the proposed bills. Without 
further debates all the bills were passed, and 
shortly after 5 P.M. the Reichstag adjourned. 
At 7 P.M. the Emperor received the presiding 
officers of the Reichstag to thank them for their 
prompt and useful work. He signed the bills, 
which were immediately published and thus be- 
came laws. 

A war credit of two hundred and fifty millions 
was voted without any man in the room knowing 
exactly how it was going to be raised. 



Reichstag and Emperor 67 

The resolute attitude and quick work of the 
Reichstag reflected the unity and resolution of 
the entire nation. Sixty-seven millions of Ger- 
mans feel, think, and act with their elected re- 
presentatives. No party, no class, no creed is 
standing back; all are imbued with one single 
thought : United Germany is unconquerable. 

Obviously no party, no class, no creed was 
standing back. Everyone present believed im- 
plicitly that united Germany was unconquerable. 

The entire German people are united as never 
before in their history. Even one hundred and 
one years ago, in 18 13, the entire population cannot 
have been so uniformly seized by the spirit of 
war as at the outbreak of this struggle, which is 
the people's war in the truest sense of the word, 
and which was predicted by Bismarck. All 
reigning princes are going out to fight with the 
army, and have appointed their wives as regents. 
Instances include the Kaiser's son-in-law, the 
Duke of Brunswick, who appointed his consort, 
the only daughter of the Emperor, as Regent. 
The princes call their people to arms, and they 
themselves stand ready to sacrifice all they have. 

We are told that the German people is united 
as it never has been before. If this is true it is 
because they are conscious that the struggle is 
one of life and death. But if this is the people's 
war, as the writers of this book maintain, it shows 



68 The Real Truth About Germany 

(which every humane person must be unwilling 
to believe) that the German people shares the 
Emperor's blind lust of power and is willing to 
submit to the most tyrannical militarism in order 
that there may be a German hegemony of Europe 
— a German Empire as absolute as that which 
groaned under the Roman Nero. Bismarck is 
said to have predicted that this would be a 
people's war. I cannot help thinking that Bis- 
marck would have had some very acid things to 
say about this war, and especially about the diplo- 
matic efforts of the Wilhelmstrasse which had 
preceded it. 

This example from above carried the nation 
with them. The Reichstag knew parties and 
factions no more, and neither does the nation. 
The Emperor sounded the word which has become 
common property from Konigsberg to Constance, 
from Upper Silesia to the Belgian frontier: "I 
know only Germans!" And yet how terribly is 
our nation disrupted by party strife. Ill-advised 
persons across our frontiers hoped that creed 
differences would make for disunion; Frenchmen 
and Russians expected to weaken our Empire 
with the aid of Alsatians and Poles. This hope 
has been destroyed — we are a united people, as 
united as was the Reichstag, the Socialists in- 
cluded. The latter have for years voted against 
all Army and Navy appropriations, have advo- 
cated international peace, and last year voted 
against the bills increasing the Army strength. 



Reichstag and Emperor 69 

In many foreign quarters strong hopes were 
nourished that this party would help them. But 
those men did not know our German people. 
Our civilization, our independence as a nation, 
was threatened, and in that moment party interest 
or creed existed no more. The true German 
heart is beating only for the Fatherland; east and 
west, north and south, Protestants, Catholics, 
and Jews, are "a united people of brethren in the 
hour of danger.** When Germany was so threat- 
ened by Russia, when the German "Peace Em- 
peror" was shamefully betrayed by the Czar of all 
the Russians, then there was but one sacred party 
in existence — ^the party of Germans. 

No rumors have reached us to disprove the 
claim of the writers that all Germans, even 
Alsatians and Poles, are unanimous in their 
patriotism at the present moment, though the 
Poles may show their hand and be just as raptur- 
ous about Russia when the Russian armies enter 
Posen, for they have always been unconquerably 
hostile to Germanization in any form. It re- 
mains to be seen how the one sacred party in 
existence, the party of the Germans, will survive 
the Russian conquest of Prussian Poland, 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER IV 

Letter from Mr. H. M. Hyndman, protesting against branding 
all Germans with the desire for war, in The Times ^ August i8th, 
1914. 

"'The demonstration against war in Berlin only the other 
day, in spite of the attacks of the police and the soldiery, was the 
most imposing ever held in that great city. From the very first 
the German Social Democratic Party, which polled no fewer than 
4,250,000 votes at the last General Election, those being votes of 
men over twenty-five years of age; which receives weekly sub- 
scriptions from more than 1,000,000 persons; which has close 
upon 100 daily newspapers belonging to and issued by the party; 
and which is estimated to form one-third of the German Army — 
from the very first, I say, this great body of working people has 
vehemently denounced the war. It has continued to do so in the 
face of bitter persecution, and, as is reported, of the imprison- 
ment and execution of some of its noblest leaders. Quite recently, 
not more than three days ago, its managers contrived to issue a 
stirring manifesto in favor of peace, though the journals of the 
party have been suppressed and the printing presses closed."* 

The Times, August 25th, 1914. 

"All have been struck by the wonderful readiness of Germany — 
striking evidence, if more were needed, of her long secret prepara- 
tions for war while she still pretended to seek peace; and they are 
thus able to discount, from their own experience, the allegation 
which has been sedulously circulated among the American' visitors 
to the effect that war has been thrust upon an unwilHng and 
unexpecting Germany by neighbors jealous of her commercial 
success. 

"At Munich in particular, the scene appears to have been a 
very striking one. The park in Luisenstrasse was closed to the 

70 



Foreword to Chapter IV 71 

public, and for two whole days a stream of artisans and peasants, 
many in the picturesque costume of the Tyrol, passed in at one 
of the gates, emerging at the other end as smart soldiers, fully 
armed and equipped. Everywhere entirely new outfits, complete 
to the last button, have apparently been issued to officers and 
men alike, to dazzle the eyes of the ladies of Paris. The men were 
carefully divided into groups according to height and marched off 
to the spot where uniforms to fit them were waiting. " 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GERMAN MOBILIZATION 

THE CLOCKWORK OF MOBILIZATION; PERFECT OR- 
DER AND QUIET EVERYWHERE — GENERAL 
ACCEPTANCE BY ALL CLASSES AND FACTIONS 
OF THE NECESSITIES OF A WAR NOT SOUGHT 
BY GERMANY. 

THE German mobilization was the greatest 
movement of people that the world has ever 
seen. Nearly four million men had to be trans- 
ported from every part of the empire to her bor- 
ders. The manner in which this population is 
distributed made this task extremely difficult. 
Berlin, Rhenish-Westphalia, Upper Silesia, and 
Saxony especially had to send their contingents 
in every direction, since the eastern provinces are 
more thinly settled and had to have a stronger 
guard for the borders immediately. The result 
was a hurrying to and fro of thousands and htin- 
dreds of thousands of soldiers, besides a flood of 
civilians who had to reach their homes as soon as 
possible. Countries where the population is more 
regularly distributed have an easier task than 

Germany, with its predominating urban popula- 

72 



The German Mobilization 73 

tion. The difficulties of the gigantic undertaking 
were also increased by the necessity for transport- 
ing war materials of every sort. In the west are 
chiefly industrial undertakings, in the east mainly 
agricultural. Horse-raising is mostly confined to 
the provinces on the North Sea and the Baltic, 
but chiefly to East Prussia, and this province, the 
farthest away from France, had to send its best 
horses to the western border, as did also Schleswig- 
Holstein and Hanover. Coal for our warships 
had to go in the other direction. From the Rhen- 
ish mines it went to the North Sea, from Upper 
Silesia to the Baltic. Ammunition and heavy 
projectiles were transported from the central part 
of the empire to the borders. And everywhere 
these operations had to be carried on with haste. 
One can thus say that the German mobilization 
was the greatest movement of men and materials 
that the world has ever seen. 

The clockwork mobilization described goes far 
to prove that if the war was not sought by Ger- 
many, Germany was perfectly certain that the 
path it was pursuing might bring it to war at 
any moment. It was a marvel of efficiency and 
organization. 

And how was it carried on? No one could have 
wondered if there had been hundreds of unforeseen 
incidents, if military trains had arrived at their 
stations with great delays, if there had resulted 
in many places a wild hugger-mugger from the 



74 The Real Truth About Germany 

tremendous problems on hand. But there was 
not a trace of this. On the Monday evening of 
the first week of mobihzation a high officer of the 
General Staff said: "It had to go well to-day, 
but how about to-morrow, the main day?'* 
Tuesday evening saw no reason for complaint, 
no delay, no requests for instructions. All had 
moved with the regularity of clockwork. Regi- 
ments that had been ordered to mobilize in the 
forenoon left in the evening for the field, fully 
equipped. Not a man was lacking. There were 
no deserters, no shirkers, no cowards. Instead, 
there were volunteers whose numbers far exceeded 
the number that could be used. Every German 
wanted to do his duty. 

It helps a man to do his duty, if he knows that 
he will be shot if he fails to do it, and that he is 
registered at the local police-station like a 
" Ticket-of -Leave " man. 

The most noteworthy thing was the earnest 
quietness with which the gigantic gathering pro- 
ceeded. Not a city, not a village reported unrest 
or even an untoward incident. The separation 
was hard for many a soldier. Many a volunteer 
tore himself away from his dear ones with bleeding 
heart, but with face beaming with the light of 
one who looks forward to victory. Following the 
Kaiser's wish, those who remained behind filled the 
churches, and, kneeling, prayed to God for vic- 
tory for the just German cause. The folk-war, 
brought on by the wantonness of the opponents, 



The German Mobilization 75 

in itself brought peace and order, safety and dis- 
cipline. Never, probably, have the police had 
fewer excesses to deal with than in the days of 
the mobilization, although great crowds gathered 
constantly in every city. 

This " folk-war, brought on by the wantonness 
of opponents," was remarkable for the orderli- 
ness of its mobilization. 

This is indeed wonderful! The sixty-seven 
millions of the population of Germany, unless they 
are belied by the authors of this book, persuaded 
themselves that it was worth while to be immedi- 
ately shut out from the sea, on which they had 
built up such an enormous commerce, and to run 
the more than probable risk of losing their 
commerce altogether, and all their Colonial 
possessions, and their Navy, and their place in 
the world, in order that Russia might be humili- 
ated and Austria allowed to crush Servia (which, 
though they did not know it, might be more than 
Austria could accomplish). More ardent stu- 
dents of politics, more ardent devotees of the aim 
that the German Emperor should be the successor 
not only of the Holy Roman Emperors, but of the 
Roman Emperors themselves, might grimly re- 
joice that the day had arrived for Germany to 
throw down her gauntlet and make good her claim 
to be mistress of the world. But I think that 
they were comparatively few — that the humilia- 
tion of Russia and the chastisement of Servia 
were " bonnes bouches " sufficient for the self- 
satisfaction of the ordinary Sausage-machine. 



76 -The Real Truth About Germany 

The best criterion of the enthusiasm of the 
people is without doubt the number of volunteers. 
More than one million of these, a number greater 
than that of the standing army, presented them- 
selves within a few days. There were sons of the 
nobility, university students, farmers, merchants, 
common laborers. No calling hung back. Every 
young man sorrowed when he was rejected. No 
section of the Fatherland was unrepresented, not 
even the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine, where, in- 
deed, the number of volunteers was conspicuously 
great. When the lists in various cities had to be 
closed, the young men who had not been accepted 
turned away with tears in their eyes, and tele- 
graphed from regiment to regiment, hoping to 
find one where there were still vacancies. Where 
the sons of the wealthy renounced the pleasures 
of youth and th-e comforts of their homes to accept 
the hardships of war in serving the Fatherland, 
the poor and the poorest appeared in like degree. 
In families having four or ^ve sons subject to 
military duty, a youngest son, not yet liable for 
service, volunteered. The year 1870, truly a 
proud year 1870, saw nothing like this. 

At all events, according to the authors of this 
book, the war was received with universal en- 
thusiasm. " More than a million volunteers 
came forward within a few days." I am afraid 
that this statement sounds suspicious. I cannot 
believe that the German military authorities, 
when there was any chance of their entering upon 



The German Mobilization 77 

the greatest war in history, would be likely to 
leave out of the various classes available for ser- 
vice more than a million men of fighting age. If 
the writers include in this number the educated 
men who had done their year's voluntary service 
and were merely anticipating the period at which 
they would be called to the colors, they would not 
be called volunteers in England; they would be 
reservists. It is calculated that the only sons and 
others not liable to military service at all, who 
volunteered and were accepted, were under 
50,000. I am not detracting from the merit of the 
patriots who would not wait till their turn came to 
be called up, but clamored to be taken at once. 
All patriots are splendid, and Germany is richer 
in patriots than almost any other country. I am 
only taking exception to the word " volunteers,'* 
which is not used in the sense in which we should 
use it, and which has probably been advisedly 
used by the translator to influence American 
opinion. This is not needed in the case of Ger- 
mans, whose military ardor is a proverb. 

A thing that raised the national enthusiasm still 
higher wav*^ the appearance of the troops in brand- 
new uniforms, complete from head to foot. The 
first sight of these new uniforms, of modest field- 
gray, faultlessly made, evoked everywhere the 
question: Where did they come from? On the 
first day of mobilization dozens of cloth manu- 
facturers appeared at the war ministry with offers 
of the new material. ''We don't need any," was 
the astonishing reply. Equal amazement was 



78 The Real Truth About Germany 

caused by the faultless new boots and shoes of 
the troops, especially in view of the recent famous 
"boot speech" of the French Senator Humbert. 

Small arms, cannons, and ammunitions are so 
plentiful that they have merely to be unpacked. 
In view of all this, it is no wonder that the regi- 
ments marching in were everywhere greeted with 
jubilation, and that those marching out took leave 
of their garrisons with joyful songs. No one thinks 
of death and destruction, every one of victory 
and a happy reunion. German discipline, once 
so slandered, now celebrates its triumph. 

The fatuousness of the writer or writers of this 
book is nowhere more hopelessly in evidence than 
in this paragraph. " A thing that raised the 
national enthusiasm still higher " (than the glory 
of Germany and her fight for existence) " was 
the appearance of the troops in brand-new uni- 
forms complete from head to foot. The first sight 
of these new uniforms of modest field-gray, 
faultlessly made, etc. . . . Equal amazement 
was caused by the faultless new boots and shoes 
of the troops, etc." 

Two reflections are provoked by these banali- 
ties. The first is: Could anything be more 
trivial in this crisis of their national existence? 
And the second is: How could they have. had 
fresh uniforms ready for four million troops if 
war was not expected? 

Of course war was expected, for " small arms, 
cannons, and ammunitions " were so plentiful 
that they merely had to be unpacked, and so 



The German Mobilization 79 

much had been said about what they were going 
to do that the troops were convinced of easy 
victory, and went away singing, which led the 
egregious writer of this book to remark: " Ger- 
man discipline, once so slandered, now celebrates 
its triumph " — "a non sequitur, " as it appears to 
me. 

There was still another matter in which the 
troops gave their countrymen cause for rejoicing. 
Not one drunken man was seen during these 
earnest days in the city streets. The General 
Staff had, m.oreover, wisely ordered that during 
the mobilization, when everyone had money in 
his pockets, alcoholic drinks were not to be sold 
at the railroad stations. Despite this, the soldiers 
did not lack for refreshments on their journey. 
Women and girls offered their services to the Red 
Cross, and there was no station where coffee, tea, 
milk, and substantial food were not at the disposal 
of the soldiers. They were not required to suffer 
hunger or any other discomifort. The German 
anti-alcoholists are rejoicing at this earnest tribute 
to their principles, which were at first laughed at, 
and then pitied, but triumphed in the days of the 
mobilization. 

It was humorous of the writer to remark in one 
sentence that the troops rejoiced their country- 
men because not one drunken man was seen in 
those days, and in the next sentence to mention 
that the drink-shops were shut. But one ap- 



8o The Real Truth About Germany 

plauds the taking of these measures for sobriety 
in Germany as they have been taken in England 
and Russia. The elevation of the soldier is a 
matter of first-class importance, but he had better 
by far be drunk than murder Red Cross nurses or 
drive women and children in front of a column 
when it is exposed to the machine-guns of the 
enemy. It is pleasant to record that the troops 
were everywhere offered tea and coffee. 

The army is increased to many times its ordi- 
nary strength by the mobilization. It draws from 
everywhere millions of soldiers, workmen, horses, 
wagons, and other material. The entire railway 
service is at its disposal. The mobilization of the 
fleet goes on more quietly and less conspicuously, 
but not less orderly and smoothly. Indeed, it is, 
even in peace times, practically mobilized as to 
its greatest and strongest units. For this reason 
its transports are smaller than those of the army; 
they are concentrated in a few harbors, and 
therefore do not attract so much public attention. 
The naval transports, working in accordance to 
plans in connection with those of the army, have 
moved their quotas of men and materials with the 
most punctual exactitude. The naval reserve of 
fully-trained officers and men is practically inex- 
haustible. The faithful work of our shipbuilding 
concerns, carried on uninterruptedly day and 
night under plans carefully prepared in time of 
peace, has wrought for our navy a strong increase 
in powerful warships. 



The German Mobilization 8i 

I am afraid that the writer of this egregious 
book cannot be trusted as to military details. He 
says : " The army is increased to many times its 
ordinary strength by mobilization." Say for the 
sake of argument that the German army consists 
of a million men on a peace footing, does our 
author mean that after mobilization it was in- 
creased to twenty or forty millions? Indeed, 
these figures do not seem to be large enough for 
him, since he says in the next sentence : " It 
draws FROM EVERYWHERE MILLIONS of 
soldiers, workmen, horses, wagons, and other 
material." At this rate it seems safer to put the 
strength of the army down at a billion ; he is very 
fond of billions. And what does he mean when 
he says that the mobilization of the fleet goes on 
"more quietly but not less orderly and smoothly"? 
And what does he mean by saying that the naval 
transports are smaller than those of the army? or 
"the faithful work of our shipbuilding concerns 
carried on uninterruptedly day and night under 
plans carefully prepared in time of peace has 
wrought for our navy a strong increase in power- 
ful warships"? Does he mean by this that the 
German dockyards have been working day and 
night because they knew that war was certain in 
August, 1914, or does he mean nothing at all in 
particular? 

As is known, the German fleet is built on the 
so-called ''assumption-of-nsk" plan. That is, it 
is intended that it shall be so strong that even 
the strongest sea-power, in a conflict with the 

6 



82 The Real Truth About Germany 

Germans, risks forfeiting^ its former r61e as a 
world factor. This "risk" idea has been ham- 
mered into the heart of every German seaman, 
and they are all eager to win for the fleet such 
glory that it can be favorably contrasted with the 
deeds of the old and the new armies. 

We know that the German fleet is so strong in 
ships and guns that if it engaged our fleet and was 
properly fought, it might be a very serious thing 
for us to have to fight a fleet of equal strength on 
the following day. But the question is: Would 
it be properly fought? Would the conscript 
German navy get as much out of their ships and 
guns as they ought? They have not ventured on 
any engagement, either with the English fleet or 
the much weaker Russian fleet, and their single 
ships have given our single ships a very wide 
berth, and where they have had the misfortune to 
meet them, have run away. Any German cruiser 
which wishes to bear out the " assumption-of- 
risk " theory has only to wait for an English 
cruiser, and she can have her " duel a Poutrance," 
and there is not an officer in the German navy 
who does not know this, and probably not a ship 
in the German navy which does not carry orders 
never to engage an English ship of anything like 
equal strength, for all the " assumption-of- 
risk " theory so magnanimously printed here. 
The German seamen may be " eager to win for 
the fleet such glory that it can be favorably con- 
trasted with the deeds of the old and new armies,'* 
but their admirals and captains have never sought 



The German Mobilization 83 

an action in the whole existence of the German 
navy, and the German fleet has not ventured into 
the North Sea since the beginning of the war. ^ 

Contrary to general expectation, the German 
fleet has taken the offensive, and the first loss 
of the war is on the English side and in English 
waters, the English cruiser Amphion running on 
to German mines in the mouth of the Thames. 

The idea of glory held by the writers of this 
book may be as distant from ours as their idea of 
taking the offensive. Our idea of taking the 
offensive is to come out and look for some one to 
fight — not to strew mines in the open sea, more 
dangerous to innocent vessels employed in com- 
merce or fishing than to men-of-war, which keep 
a look-out. This we put on a par with poisoning 
wells. Three of our smaller cruisers have, it is 
true, been blown up by these mines, but the men 
who laid them are not naval warriors but dastards 
of exactly the same class as the man who threw 
the land-bomb which killed the Archduke Francis 
Ferdinand,^ 

Neither do we consider it taking the offensive 
for a battle cruiser like the " Goeben " to bom- 

^ Except the Konigsherg, 3350 tons, which, receiving informa- 
tion from a spy that the Pegasus, 2135 tons, with guns of inferior 
range, was lying at anchor, steam-down, cleaning her boilers out 
and otherwise repairing, came in and put her out of action from a 
safe distance. 

3 As this goes to press there is news of a really brilliant dash by 
German submarines which resulted in the torpedoing of three 
armored cruisers. 



84 The Real Truth About Germany 

bard towns on the Algerian coast as defenceless 
as Brighton and Margate. 

In the Baltic and the Mediterranean also Ger- 
man ships have taken the offensive against the 
enemies' coast, as is shown by the bombardment 
by the Germans of the war harbor of Libau and 
of fortified landing-places on the Algerian coast. 

When the "Goeben" and the "Breslau" 
heard that England had declared war, they ceased 
to confide in the "risk idea," and steamed east 
as hard as they could, presumably to make the 
Adriatic. They did not take advantage of the 
glorious opportunity of risk and serving their 
country presented by the fact that a French army 
was being transported from Algeria to France, 
When Nelson was chasing the transports which 
carried Napoleon's army and the fleet which 
convoyed them, he told off four ships to engage 
the entire French fleet until the others had sunk 
the transports. The " Goeben " and the " Bres- 
lau," if they had been animated by such a spirit, 
might have destroyed thousands of soldiers as 
well as inflicted great damage on the English 
men-of-war which guarded the crossing, before 
they were sunk, and they would have set the 
German navy the example of " confiding in the 
risk idea '' which it seems to need so badly. But 
they took advantage of the English men-of-war 
being busy and fled. Headed off the Adriatic by 
small English ships — the boastful Austrian navy 
declined to come out and help them — they ran 



The German Mobilization 85 

into Messina. Italian neutrality was strict, and 
in twenty-four hours they came out again, after 
leaving their wills and their valuables with their 
consul. They came out with their bands playing, 
talking about death and glory, and the world, 
which did not know how little they meant, was 
thrilled with admiration. But the British fleet 
was not there: was it still convoying the French 
army across the Mediterranean? there was only 
the little "Gloucester," about a match for the 
"Breslau" (in armament, two six-inch and ten 
four-inch guns, in speed twenty-six knots). 
Though the " Goeben " carried ten eleven-inch 
guns and was two knots faster, they did not turn 
and rend her, but fled before her to Constanti- 
nople. She hung on right up to the Dardanelles, 
chasing and shelling them — they passed in, and 
after holding up enemies* merchant ships in 
neutral waters, were saved by being sold to 
Turkey, crews and all. 

And this veracious book was published after the 
inglorious exit of the " Goeben." 

Thus the fleet, confiding in the "risk" idea now 
proved to be true, and in its earnest and coura- 
geous spirit, may look forward with confidence 
to coming events. 

But will not civilians have to hunger and thirst 
in these days? That is an earnest question. The 
answer is. No. Even in Berlin, city of millions, 
the milk supply did not fail for a day. Infants 
will not have to bear the privations of war. All 



86 The Real Truth About Germany 

provisions are to be had at reasonable prices. 
Empire, municipalities, and merchants are working 
successfully together to ensure that there shall be 
a sufficient food supply at not too great a cost. 
Not only is our great army mobilized, but the 
whole folk is mobilized, and the distribution of 
labor, the food question, and the care of the sick 
and wounded are all being provided for. The 
whole German folk has become a gigantic war 
camp. All are mobilized to protect Kaiser, Folk, 
and Fatherland, as the closing report of the Reich- 
stag puts it. And all Germany pays the tribute 
of a salute to the chiefs of the army and navy, 
who work with deeds, not words. 

If this is true of Berlin, Berlin is more fortunate 
than Hamburg. 

From the "Pall Mall Gazette," 14th September, 
1914: 

"Rome, Monday. 

"Terrible stories are published here of the dearth of food 
in Germany, which is rapidly assuming a position of the 
extremest gravity. 

"To all intents and purposes famine prevails in Hamburg, 
and a gentleman who was recently in that city, and who is 
now in Rome, asserts that the situation there is merely an 
example of the conditions prevailing all over Germany.. 

"He says that the immense storehouses in Hamburg, in 
which vast quantities of food had accumulated, have been 
taken over by the General Staff, and their contents have been 
sent to the front to be distributed among the troops. 

"Traffic in Hamburg has ceased, and all factories closed. 
There are 1500 ships lying idle in the harbor, and the crews 



The German Mobilization 87 

are suffering from hunger. Prices have risen to such an 
extent that even in the middle of August eggs cost ten marks 
a dozen. 

"Fresh meat was unprocurable, all the cattle having been 
requisitioned. There was a very small quantity of milk and 
butter, but it had all been reserved for the hospitals. There 
was neither milk nor prepared food for babies, and long, 
sad processions of mothers could be seen outside the Town 
Hall imploring the City Fathers for assistance. " — Renter. 

Possibly in Berlin there is someone of influence, 
such as the Empress, not deaf to the voice of 
humanity — the cry of the coming race from its 
cradle. 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER V 

LLOYD GEORGE ON THE GERMAN EMPEROR IN HIS GREAT 
SPEECH AT THE QUEEN's HALL. 

** Have you read the Kaiser's speeches? If you have not a copy, 
I advise you to buy it; they will soon be out of print — and you 
won't have any more of the same sort again. (Laughter and 
cheers.) They are full of the clatter and bluster of German 
militarists — the mailed fist, the shining armor. Poor old mailed 
fist — its knuckles are getting a little bruised. Poor shining ar- 
mor — the shine is being knocked out of it. (Laughter.) But 
there is the same swagger and boastfulness running through the 
whole of the speeches. You saw that remarkable speech which 
appeared in the British Weekly this week. It is a very remarkable 
product, as an illustration of the spirit we have got to fight. It 
is his speech to his soldiers on the way to the front. 

Remember that the German people are the chosen of God. 
On me, on me as German Emperor, the Spirit of God has 
descended. I am His weapon, His sword, and His Vice- 
gerent. Woe to the disobedient. Death to cowards and 
unbelievers. 
There has been nothing like it since the days of Mahomet. 
Lunacy — (laughter) — is always distressing, but sometimes it is 
dangerous, and when you get it manifested in the head of the 
State and it has become the policy of a great empire it is about 
time it should be ruthlessly put away. (Cheers.) I do not 
believe he meant all these speeches, it was simply the martial 
straddle which he had acquired. But there were men around him 
who meant every word of it. This was their religion: — Treaties: 
they tangle the feet of Germany in her advance; cut them with 
the sword. Little nations: they hinder the advance of Germany; 
trample them in the mire under the German heel. The Russian 
Slav; he challenges the supremacy of Germany in Europe; hurl 

88 



Foreword to Chapter V 89 

your legions at him and massacre him. Britain : she is a constant 
menace to the predominancy of Germany in the world ; wrest the 
trident out of her hand. 

"More than that, the new philosophy of Germany is to destroy 
Christianity — sickly sentimentalism about sacrifice for others, 
poor pap for German mouths. We will have the new diet, we 
will force it on the world. It will be made in Germany — (laugh- 
ter) — a diet of blood and iron. What remains? Treaties have 
gone; the honor of nations gone; liberty gone. What is left? 
Germany — Germany is left — Deutschland ilher Alles. That is all 
that is left. That is what we are fighting, that claim to predom- 
inancy of a civilization, a material one, a hard one, a civilization 
which, if once it rules and sways the world, liberty goes, democ- 
racy vanishes, and unless Britain comes to the rescue with her 
sons, it will be a dark day for humanity. (Loud cheers.) 

"We are not fighting the German people. The German people 
are just as much under the heel of this Prussian military caste, 
and more so, thank God, than any other nation in Europe. It 
will be a day of rejoicing for the German peasant and artisan and 
trader when the military caste is broken. (Cheers.) You know 
his pretensions. He gives himself the airs of a demigod walking 
the pavement — civilians and their wives swept into the gutter; 
they have no right to stand in the way of the great Prussian 
Junker. Men, women, nations — they have all got to go. He 
thinks all he has got to say is, "We are in a hurry. " (Laughter.) 
That is the answer he gave to Belgium. "Rapidity of action is 
Germany's greatest asset, " which means, " I am in a hurry. Clear 
out of my way. " You know the type of motorist, the terror of 
the roads, with a 6o-h.p. car. He thinks the roads are made for 
him, and anybody who impedes the action of his car by a single 
mile is knocked down. The Prussian Junker is the road-hog of 
Europe. (Loud cheers.) Small nationalities in his way hurled 
to the roadside, bleeding and broken; women and children 
crushed under the wheels of his cruel car; Britain ordered out of 
his road. All I can say is this. If the old British spirit is alive in 
British hearts that bully will be torn from his seat. (Prolonged 
cheers.) Were he to win it would be the greatest catastrophe 
that befell democracy since the days of the Holy AlHance and its 
ascendancy. " 



CHAPTER V 

ARMY AND NAVY 

THE GERMAN ARMY AND NAVY ON THE WATCH — 
FOUR MILLION GERMAN MEN IN THE FIELD — 
THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEERS JOIN THE COLORS 
TO FIGHT FOR GERMANY'S EXISTENCE, AMONG 
THEM THE FLOWER OF HER SCIENTIFIC AND 
ARTISTIC LIFE. 

THERE can be no greater contrast than that 
between the United States and Germany in 
one of the most important questions of existence 
with which a state is confronted. In its whole 
history the United States has never had a foreign, 
a hostile force of invaders upon its territory; 
foreign armies have never laid waste its fields. 

This is a tactful way of insinuating to the United 
States that they do not know what War means. 
But their great Civil War, which lasted oyer the 
first half of the sixties, gave them as searching a 
test as any war of modern times. 

Until late in the last century, however, Germany 
was the battlefield for the then most powerful 

90 



Army and Navy 91 

nations of Europe. The numerous German states 
and provinces, too, fought among themselves, often 
on behalf of foreign powers. The European great 
powers of that day were able, imhindered and 
unpunished, to take for themselves piece after 
piece of German territory. In the United States, 
on the other hand, it was years before the steadily 
increasing population attained to the boundaries 
set for it by nature. 

Our Bismarck was finally able, in the years from 
1864 to 1 87 1, to create a great empire from the 
many small German states. As he himself often 
remarked, however, this was only possible because 
his policies and diplomacy rested upon and were 
supported by a well-trained and powerful army. 

It is well that Germany confesses that Bis- 
marck's policies and diplomacy rested on a large 
and well-trained army. The army wags Prussia, 
and Prussia wags Germany. If it had not been 
under the heel of the army would Bavaria have 
consented to the present war? Would Hamburg 
have voted for it? — Hamburg, which has fifteen 
hundred ships lying idle in its docks, and less sea- 
borne trade than many an African village! The 
Prussian Praetorians, headed unfortunately by 
their Emperor, have drenched Europe with blood 
to extend the area of their tyrannies. 

Nothing but the army is left of the Bismarckian 
policy. Would Bismarck have kept Alsace and 
Lorraine loyal to France by senseless persecu- 
tions? Would Bismarck have allowed Germany 
to go into the war with the whole civilized world 



92 The Real Truth About Germany 

except Austria ready to league against her? 
Would Bismarck have so gone to war that Italy 
could within the terms of the Triple Alliance re- 
fuse to join in on Germany's side? Would 
Bismarck have consented to a plan of campaign 
which was bound to make the unwilling English 
Radicals declare war on Germany with the ardor 
of jingoes? Would Bismarck have forgotten to 
ascertain whether Japan would display an attitude 
which would liberate large Russian armies from 
Asia? — Japan, which since she came into the war 
has sold to Russia her formidable siege-guns ! 

How the German Empire came into being at 
that time is well known. A war was necessary 
because the then so powerful France did not desire 
that North and South Germany should unite. 
She was not able to prevent this union, was de- 
feated, and had to give back to us two old German 
provinces which she had stolen from the Germans. 
The old Field-Marshal von Moltke said not long 
after the War of 1870-71, that the Germans would 
still have to defend Alsace-Lorraine for fifty years 
more. Perhaps he little realized how prophetic 
his words were ; but he and those who followed him, 
the German emperors and the German war minis- 
ters, prepared themselves for this coming de- 
fensive struggle, and unremittingly devoted' their 
attention to the German army. 

Moltke was born a Dane, and therefore in a 
position to judge how strong were the feelings of 



Army and Navy 93 

provinces made captive by Germany. He also 
knew the Prussian officer, and how impossible his 
brutalities would make the conciliation of any 
captive province. He foresaw Zabern and might 
have prophesied Louvain. 

The principal preparation made by Germany for 
the present "defensive** struggle has lain, as 
one of our Under-Secretaries of State has well 
pointed out, in the preparation of siege-trains 
with gigantic guns for the invasion of France and 
Belgium. 

From 1887 on there had been no doubt that in 
the event of war with France we should have to 
reckon also with Russia. This meant that the 
army must be strong enough to be equal to the 
coming fight on two borders — a tremendous 
demand upon the resources of a land when one 
considers that a peaceful folk, devoted to agri- 
culture, industry, and trade, must live for decades 
in the constant expectation of being obliged, be 
it to-morrow, be it in ten years, to fight for its 
life against its two great military neighbors 
simultaneously. There are, moreover, the great 
money expenditures, and also the burden of 
universal military service, which, as is well known, 
requires every able-bodied male German to serve 
a number of years with the colors, and later to 
hold himself ready, first as a reservist, then as 
member of the Landwehr, and finally as member 
of the Landsturm, to spring to arms at the call 
of his supreme war lord, the German Emperor. 



94 The Real Truth About Germany 

The men who in 1875 planned the war of ex- 
tirpation against France when she began to 
recover from the War of 1870 were responsible for 
the Franco-Russian Alliance. It showed Prince 
Gortchakoff and the Czar Alexander what the 
invasion of Belgium has shown in the present war 
— that the policy of Germany is expressed by the 
naked cynicism of von Bernhardi*s " Conditions 
may arise which are more powerful than the most 
honorable intentions." The same sentiment has 
been defined with yet more naked shamelessness 
by the German Chancellor, von Bethmann-HoU- 
weg, — in his dictum that " a treaty is only a scrap 
of paper." 

Germany's insecurity in living between two 
powerful and hostile neighbors was nothing in the 
opinion of Russia to the insecurity of living next 
door to a country with the politics of a brigand. 
As the brigand preys upon unsuspecting travelers, 
Germany was looking out for the opportunity to 
prey on unsuspecting neighbors. Hence the 
Franco-Russian Alliance, but for which Germany 
might have fallen on Russia's rear while she was 
fighting Japan, 

As for the financial burden, by abandoning her 
designs against England, Germany could have 
done without an important navy. Until the 
Kaiser's telegram to Kruger England's navy was 
on the side of Germany. Germany's navy is part 
of her equipment as a brigand. 

A warlike, militant nation would not long have 
endured such conditions, but would have com- 
pelled a war and carried it through swiftly. As 



Army and Navy 95 

Bismarck said, however, the German army, since 
it is an army of the folk itself, is not a weapon 
for frivolous aggression. Since the German army, 
when it is summoned to war, represents the whole 
German people, and since the whole German 
people is peaceably disposed, it follows that the 
army can only be a defensive organization. 



The book suggests that if Germany had not 
been a peaceful nation, she would have gone to 
war long ago to disarm other nations, after which 
she might have disarmed herself, unless she 
preferred to remain armed, forcing the unarmed 
rest of Europe to pay for her armaments. But it is 
not good policy for the most peaceful nation to 
declare wars for the conquest of her neighbors 
until opportunities make her success a certainty. 
Besides, if the German army were a purely de- 
fensive organization which would only be used to 
repel foreign aggression (and it must be remem- 
bered that the third member of the Triple Alliance 
refused to fight on the ground that this is purely a 
war of aggression), how could it have made such 
a war? 

The fact is, that this peaceful nation, with an 
army purely for defensive purposes, has several 
times thrown down the glove, and reaped sub- 
stantial advantages by the challenged nation not 
daring to pick it up. It must have been absolutely 
staggered when Great Britain, whom for once she 
was courting instead of challenging, instantly 
accepted war rather than betray her honor. 



96 The Real Truth About Germany 

If war comes, millions of Germans must go to 
the front, must leave their parents, their families, 
their children. They must. And this **must'* 
means not only the command of their Emperor, 
but also the necessity to defend their own land. 
Did not this necessity exist, these sons, husbands, 
and fathers would assuredly not go gladly to the 
battlefield, and it is likewise certain that those 
who stayed at home would not rejoice so enthusi- 
astically to see them go as we Germans have seen 
them rejoicing in these days. Again, then, let 
us repeat that the German army is a weapon which 
can be and is used only for defense against foreign 
aggressions. When the aggressions come, the 
whole German folk stands with its army, as it 
does now. 

But aggressions come when the Kaiser orders 
them. He has only to give the word to Austria 
as he gives the word to Hammann for a campaign 
of lies against England in the Press and the 
" amour propre " of the nation insulted by Aus- 
tria may be trusted to do the rest. The German 
people does not appear to be able to distinguish 
between manufactured and spontaneous aggres- 
sions. Or perhaps it does and is only grinning 
like a plucky boy who is going to be caned, when 
writers like the author of this book are explaining 
to the mocking American that this is a purely 
democratic and defensive war. It seems a pity 
not to add that it has the approval of the Salvation 
Army. 



Army and Navy 97 

The German army is divided into twenty-five 
corps in times of peace. In war-times reservists, 
members of the Landwehr, and occasionally also 
of the Landsturm are called to the colors. The 
result is that the German army on a war footing 
is a tremendously powerful organ. 

Quite an important addition to its numbers can 
be made by calling in the German spies who are 
stationed in other countries. 

Our opponents in foreign countries have for 
years consistently endeavored to awaken the 
belief that the German soldier does his obligatory 
service very unwillingly, that he does not get 
enough to eat and is badly treated. These asser- 
tions are false, and anybody who has seen in these 
weeks of mobilization how our soldiers, reservists 
and Landwehr men, departed for the field or re- 
ported at the garrisons, anybody who has seen 
their happy, enthusiastic, and fresh faces, knows 
that mishandled men, men who have been drilled 
as machines, cannot present such an appearance. 

If the German soldier is not badly treated by his 
officers, he is a sad liar. For the books which 
deal with such subjects, in Germany as elsewhere, 
are full of his woes. In the present war great 
numbers of German prisoners have wounds at 
the backs of their legs and feet which they allege 
that they have received from the swords and 
revolvers of their officers, who march behind 

7 



98 The Real Truth About Germany 

them and drive them into action in solid masses, 
which carried them to the gates of Paris, though 
by the hundred thousand men are said to have 
fallen by the way. Presuming that they are very 
well fed under ordinary circumstances, one may 
note that from the time that they crossed the 
Belgian frontier the German commissariat ar- 
rangements for food have broken down. 

On the day the German mobilization was 
ordered we travelled with some Americans from 
the western border to Berlin. These Americans 
said: '*We do not know much about your army, 
but judging by what we have seen in these days, 
there prevails in it and all its arrangements such 
system that it must win. System must win every 
time." In this saying there is, indeed, much of 
truth — order and system are the basis upon which 
the mighty organization of our army is built. 

The enormous masses of men which Germany 
was able to throw upon Belgium within a few 
days of the beginning of the war show, even if 
some secret system of mobilization had been in 
operation, the wonderful organization of the 
German army. They were able to send out two 
million or more men, wonderfully complete in 
armament and transport, even if they left the 
provisioning, or some of it, to the chances of what 
they could requisition in the occupied countries. 
But the American who said that " system must 
win every time *' was ignorant of a truth still more 
axiomatic in war — that where both sides are well 



Army and Navy 99 

organized, generalship and personal ascendancy 
are prime factors, and that where the generalship 
is pretty equal and the numbers are pretty equal, 
one nation may completely dominate another in 
battle. Apparently, though the officers are a 
military people, the men of the German army are 
not. The enormous heroism they have shown, 
the enormous military feats which they have 
accomplished in marching to the gates of Paris 
are due to discipline and training, and above all 
to their exalted love of the Fatherland, which 
enables them to face terrible and hellish situa- 
tions to which they have no berserking spirit to 
impel them. The individual German " Tommy " 
does not want to " go for " the individual English 
" Tommy " as the individual English " Tommy " 
wants to go for him. 

Now a word concerning the German officer. 
He, too, has been much maligned ; he is often 
misunderstood by foreigners, and yet we believe 
that the people of the United States in particular 
must be able to understand the German officer. 
One of the greatest sons of free America, George 
Washington, gave his countrymen the advice to 
select only gentlemen as officers, and it is according 
to this principle that the officers of the German 
army and navy are chosen. Their selection is 
made, moreover, upon a democratic basis, in that 
the officers' corps of the various regiments decide 
for themselves whether they will or will not accept 
as a comrade the person whose name is proposed 
to them. 



loo The Real Truth About Germany 

The people in the United States have been very 
explicit about the German officer. We English 
trust that German officers as a class have been 
maligned. We are unwilling to believe that the 
estimate can be true of them generally; we are 
unwilling to believe that the picture drawn of them 
in " Life in a Garrison Town '' is typical, true as it 
may be of the particular regiment in which the 
author was a lieutenant. There German officers 
are made out to be drunken, bestial, caddish, dis- 
honest, not even particularly brave, and, of 
course, abominably arrogant. We know, in spite 
of what Lieutenant Bilse has written, that the 
German army must be full of officers who are 
brave gentlemen as well as born aristocrats. We 
have heard innumerable instances of the noble 
manners of the best of them in their intercourse 
with foreigners. If they are arrogant to their men 
it is because it is the tradition of their service. 
If they drink heavily, it is because popular opinion 
does not condemn it, and it must be remembered 
that they rarely drink spirits, except in the form of 
" petits verres." " A drink " in Germany does 
not mean a whiskey-and-soda. The openness of 
their " amours " would in England be a public 
scandal, and in America would lead to wholesale 
murder. In connection with it, credit must be 
given to the German authorities for the measures 
taken to stamp out a disease which is infinitely 
more dangerous to the community than hydro- 
phobia. 

The other side of the shield is a bright one. 
The German officer is devoted to the study of his 
profession, and has carried military science to 



Army and Navy loi 

a higher degree than had ever been known 
before. 

The rest of the paragraph will seem to Ameri- 
cans almost comical, George Washington would 
be hooted all over America if he advised the 
American of to-day to " select only gentlemen as 
officers." West Point is absolutely democratic 
as to the candidates who may submit themselves 
for the army entrance examination, though it 
turns out such a splendid article. To allow the 
officers of a regiment to blackball a man who has 
been appointed to their regiment would not strike 
an Englishman or an American as democratic, but 
as rank snobbery. 

One sees that the German army is not, as many 
say, a tremendous machine, but rather a great, 
living organism, which draws its strength and 
life-blood from all classes of the whole German 
folk. The German army can develop its entire 
strength only in a war which the folk approve, 
that is, when a defensive war has been forced 
upon them. That this is true, will have been 
realized by our friends in the United States before 
this comes into their hands. 

The description " a great living organism, 
which draws its strength and life-blood from all 
classes of the whole German folk " is, from the 
literary point of view, unfortunate. It is too like 
the definition of a vampire, which is the American 
view of the German army, as well as our own. 
The statement that " the German army can de- 



102 The Real Truth About Germany 

velop its entire strength only in a war which the 
folk approve " will strike the rest of the world as a 
gloomy prognostication of defeat. One asks 
aghast: Did the German people, which had built 
up in forty years a manufacturing interest, an 
overseas commerce, a mercantile fleet rivaling 
those of England and the United States, really 
wish to start a war, in which all these, and even 
the German Empire itself, might be lost, just to 
enable Austria to punish Servia for a murder with 
which Servia may have had nothing to do, or to 
crush and rob Servia because she feared her? — 
Did the German people really, if all this talk of 
avenging the Archduke*s murder and freeing 
Austria from the Servian menace was fudge, really 
wish to imperil everything dear to it in life, and a 
million German lives, just to humiliate Russia, 
and make the small nations regard her as a 
broken reed? If they did, history will record it as 
the most notorious instance of midsummer mad- 
ness affecting a whole people. To use a homely 
business phrase, " It really was not good enough." 
But then, we have only the word of the egregious 
writer of this book's word for it, and we prefer to 
trust the German people. 

The German fleet is in like manner a weapon 
of defense. It was very small up to the end of 
the last century, but has since then been consis- 
tently built up according to the ground principles 
which Mr. Roosevelt has so often in his powerful 
manner laid down for the American fleet. The 
question has often been asked, what is there for 



Army and Navy 103 

the German fleet to defend, since the German 
coast-line is so short? The answer is that the 
strength of a fleet must not be made to depend 
upon the length of coast-lines, but upon how 
many ships and how much m^erchandise go out 
from and enter the harbors, how great overseas 
interests there are, how large the colonies are and 
how they are situated, and finally how strong the 
sea-powers are with which Germany may have to 
carry on a war and how they are situated. To 
meet all these requirements there is but one rem- 
edy, namely, either that our fleet shall be strong 
enough to prevent the strongest sea-power from 
conducting war against us, or that, if war does 
come, it shall be able so to battle against the 
mightiest opponent that the latter shall be seriously 
weakened. 

The theory that the German fleet is a weapon 
of defense would be a very plausible one if the 
hireling German professor, who corresponds to 
Dr. Hammann in the newspaper world, had not 
been at such pains to brag about the rapidity 
with which it was going to overhaul the British 
navy, and what it was going to do to it when the 
overhauling was complete. Otherwise, it would 
have seemed only patriotic and natural that Ger- 
many should amass a respectable fleet to be able 
to dispute the Monroe Doctrine, if her vital in- 
terests were assailed while she was establishing 
a new Germany in the south of Brazil, or if she 
happened to be at war with Russia, and wished to 



104 The Real Truth About Germany 

prevent the Baltic becoming a Russian lake. A 
fleet up to the standard of France or Russia or 
Italy might have been classed as a weapon of 
defense. A fleet to make her equal the sea-power 
of England, which only kept up a very small army 
as a weapon of defense, could not fairly be classed 
in this category. No one disputes Germany's 
right to have such a fleet if she could afford it, but 
the Ballin-Biilow committee stultifies itself by 
taking the responsibility of a book which ad- 
vances such foolish pretensions. 

The latter part of the paragraph lets the real cat 
out of the bag. The fleet has to be equal to strong 
sea-powers " with which Germany may have to 
carry on war, and has to be so strong that the 
mightiest sea-power cannot fight it without being 
seriously weakened," If that is so, why this 
puerile blarney about it being intended only for 
purposes of defense? 

Germany, as especially the Americans know, 
has become a great merchant marine nation, whose 
colonies are flourishing. Furthermore, since the 
land's growing population has greatly increased 
its strength in the course of the last years, the 
mistrust and jealousy of Great Britain have in 
particular been directed against the development 
of our ocean commerce, and later of our navy. 
To the upbuilding of the German navy were 
ascribed all manner of plans — to attack Great 
Britain, to make war on Japan, etc. It was even 
declared by the English press that Germany 
intended to attack the United States as soon as 



Army and Navy 105 

its fleet was strong enough. To-day, when Great 
Britain has needlessly declared war upon us, the 
Americans will perhaps believe that our fleet was 
never planned of built for an attack on anyone. 
Germany desired simply to protect its coasts and 
its marine interests in the same manner in which 
it protects its land boundaries. It is realized in 
the United States as well as here that a fleet can 
be powerful only when it has a sufficient number 
of vessels of all classes, and when it is thoroughly 
and unremittingly schooled in times of peace. 
We have tried to attain this ideal in Germany, 
and it may be remarked that the training of the 
personnel requires greater efforts here, since the 
principle of universal service is also applied to 
the fleet, with a resulting short term of service, 
whereas all foreign fleets have a long term of 
enlistment. 

That the German fleet was built for aggression 
against England or to frighten the United States 
from going to war against Germany for the en- 
forcement of the Monroe Doctrine — that it was not 
built to protect its coasts and its marine interests, 
is amply shown by the fact that it has not been 
seen on the coast of the North Sea since the war 
began, and that it has not fought an action against 
a single British man-of-war (see page 82) to pre- 
vent German commerce being swept from the sea, 
though there are both English cruisers and Ger- 
man cruisers in the Atlantic and the Pacific. 
Under these circumstances, what on earth has it 



io6 The Real Truth About Germany 

to do with the idea of defense? Its sole aims are, 
if it gets the chance, to prey on British commerce 
or escort a German expedition to invade Great 
Britain. It must be admitted that it is a very 
scientifically designed navy, with excellent ships 
and guns, always kept on something like a war- 
footing. Its personnel is at present an unknown 
quantity. 

The nominal strength of the German fleet is 
regulated by statute, as is also the term — twenty 
years — at the expiration of which old vessels must 
automatically be replaced by new ones. This 
fleet-strength is set at 41 line-of -battle ships, 20 
armored cruisers, and 40 small cruisers, besides 
144 torpedo-boats and 72 submarine vessels. 
These figures, however, have not been reached. 
To offset this fact, however, almost the whole 
German fleet has been kept together in home 
waters. Great Britain's fleet is much stronger 
than ours, but despite this, the German fleet faces 
its great opponent with coolness and assurance 
and with that courage and readiness to undertake 
great deeds that mark those who know that their 
land has been unjustifiably attacked. 

I express no opinion as to how far the number of 
ships laid down in the schedule has been attained. 
That it has not been attained the Germans assure 
us in this book. 

To say that the German fleet faces the British 
with "that courage and readiness to undertake 
great deeds that mark those who know that their 



Army and Navy 107 

land has been unjustifiably attacked " does not 
seem to English and Americans to have been 
proved. The obvious fact is that the German 
fleet has been ordered to keep out of harm's way, 
bitterly, as one may imagine, to the disgust of the 
bulk of the officers, "who work with deeds not 
words." 

It is utterly incorrect to say, as has been said, 
that the German naval officers are filled with 
hatred for other navies, especially for the British. 
On the contrary, the relations between German 
and English officers and men have always been 
good, almost as good as those of the Germans with 
the American officers. It is not personal hatred 
that inspires our officers and men with the lust 
for battle, but their indignation over the unpro- 
voked attack and the realization that, if everyone 
will do his best for the Fatherland in this great 
hour, it will not be in vain even against the greatest 
naval power. We, too, are confident of this, for 
strenuous and faithful effort always has its reward, 
and this is especially true of our fleet organization. 

German naval officers are respected and popu- 
lar with the officers of our own and other fleets. 
But one could wish that the German Admiralty's 
idea of " doing its best for the Fatherland in this 
great hour " was not laying mines in open com- 
mercial waters, and skulking in forgotten har- 
bors of South America and Africa until there is a 
chance of falling on an unsuspecting merchant- 
man. The "Dresden" and the "Karlsruhe" 



io8 The Real Truth About Germany 

and the " Leipzig " can have a light-weight boxing 
match with an English cruiser of the same size at 
sight. 

The United States realizes this as well as we, 
for it, too, has built up a strong and admirably- 
trained fleet by prodigious labor. As is the case 
with the German fleet, the American navy is also 
not built for aggression, but for defense. 

When the German fleet meets the American 
over a question involved by the Monroe Doctrine 
it will be amusing to hear what Americans have to 
say upon this point of aggression or defense. 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER VI 

The Times, August nth, 19 14: 

"As I find that the Chancellor's Reichstag speech of August 4th 
has not been published in England, I will give here the vital 
passage. After dealing with the diplomatic and military issues, 
the Imperial Chancellor said : 

" ' Gentlemen, we are now in a state of necessity, and necessity 
knows no law ! Our troops have occupied Luxemburg, and per- 
haps (as a matter of fact, the speaker knew that Belgium had 
been invaded that morning) are already on Belgian soil. Gentle- 
men, that is contrary to the dictates of international law. It 
is true that the French Government have declared at Brussels 
that France is willing to respect the neutrality of Belgium as long 
as her opponent respects it. We knew, however, that France 
stood ready for the invasion. France could wait, but we could 
not wait. A French movement upon our flank upon the Lower 
Rhine might have been disastrous. So we were compelled to 
override the just protest of the Luxemburg and Belgian Govern- 
ments. The wrong — I speak openly — that we are committing 
we will endeavor to make good as soon as our military goal has 
been reached. Anybody who is threatened, as we are threatened, 
and is fighting for his highest possessions, can have only one 
thought — ^how he is to hack his way through {wie er sich durch- 
haut): " 

Lloyd George in his Queen's Hall speech on English, French, 
and German neutrality; 

"There is no man in this room who has always regarded the 
prospects of engaging in a great war with greater reluctance, with 
greater repugnance, than I have done throughout the whole of 
my political life. There is no man either inside or outside of this 
room more convinced that we could not have avoided it without 

109 



no The Real Truth About Germany 

national dishonor. (Cheers.) I am fully alive to the fact that 
whenever a nation has engaged in any war she has always invoked 
the sacred name of honor. Many a crime has been committed 
in its name; there are some crimes being committed now. But 
all the same, national honor is a reality, and any nation that 
disregards it is doomed. Why is our honor as a country involved 
in this war? Because in the first place we are bound in an hon- 
orable obligation to defend the independence, the liberty, the 
integrity of a small neighbor that has lived peaceably, but she 
could not have compelled us because she was weak. (Cries of 
' Quite right! ') The man who declines to discharge his debt because 
his creditor is too poor to enforce it is a blackguard. (Cheers.) 

"We entered into this treaty, a solemn treaty, a full treaty, to 
defend Belgium and her integrity. Our signatures are attached 
to the document. Our signatures do not stand alone. This was 
not the only country to defend the integrity of Belgium. Russia, 
France, Austria, and Prussia — (hisses) — they are all there. Why 
did they not perform the obligation? It is suggested that this 
treaty is purely an excuse on our part. It is our low craft and 
cunning, just to cloak our jealousy of a superior civilization which 
we are attempting to destroy. Our answer is the action we took 
in 1870. Mr. Gladstone was then Prime Minister. Lord Gran- 
ville, I think, was Foreign Secretary. I have never heard it 
alleged to their charge that they were ever jingoes. That treaty 
bond was this: we called upon the belligerent Powers to respect 
that treaty. We called upon France, we called upon Germany. 
At that time, bear in mind, the greatest danger to Belgium came 
from France and not from Germany. We intervened to protect 
Belgium against France exactly as we are doing now to protect 
her against Germany. We are proceeding exactly in the same 
way. We invited both the belligerent Powers to state that they 
had no intention of violating Belgian territory. What was the 
answer given by Bismarck? He said it was superfluous to ask 
Prussia such a question in view of the treaties in force. France 
gave a similar answer. 



CHAPTER VI 

NEUTRALITY BY THE GRACE OF ENGLAND 

JANUS, a mighty god of the ancient Romans, 
was represented as having two faces. He 
could smile and frown simultaneously. 

This god Janus is the personification of Neutral- 
ity according to English ideas. Neutrality smiles 
when violated by England and frowns when vio- 
lated by other Powers. 

This epigram on England and neutrality is the 
one real achievement of this remarkable book. 
It is a bright, pithy saying which will please all the 
enemies of England. But considering the pains 
taken by England to avoid the violation of neu- 
trality, even in the case of a German ship carrying 
weapons to the Boers during their war with Eng- 
land, it is easy for Neutrality to be gracious when 
England does make a slip. 

The United States got a taste of England's 
neutrality when, a century ago, the English im- 
pressed thousands of American sailors, taking 
them from American ships on the high seas, when 
they searched neutral ships and confiscated the 
enemy's property on board of them, until Congress 

-III 



112 The Real Truth About Germany 

in Washington voted for the declaration of war 
against England. 

In the great Civil War, 1861 to 1864, England 
had counted on the victory of the Southern States ; 
she recognized them as belligerents and supplied 
them with warships. This was not considered by- 
England a breach of neutrality until the minister 
of the United States declared, on Septem_ber 5th, 
1863, that unless England desisted, war would re- 
sult. England yielded. 

If the writer of this book had had any knowl- 
edge of history or notions of fairness, he would 
have perceived that England's yielding was the 
finest possible example of her fairness and neu- 
trality. She could have fought against the 
Northerners side by side with the Southern States 
without the smallest ultimate risk to herself. 
Her fleet throwing men and supplies into the 
Southern ports and her money would have turned 
the scale without the shadow of a doubt. But she 
resisted the temptation as she resisted the temp- 
tation to send the Russian admiral's fleet to the 
bottom when he fired upon the Grimsby trawlers 
(see page 116). All thinking Americans ac- 
knowledge her justice and magnanimity just as 
freely as the English acknowledge that it has been 
for the good of the world that the North did win. 

But, according to the old German proverb: 
"A cat cannot resist catching mice," she secretly 
permitted the fitting out of privateers (the Ala- 



Neutrality by the Grace of England 113 

bama) for the Southern States and was finally- 
forced to pay an indemnity of $15,000,000. 
England gained, however, more than she lost by 
this interpretation of neutrality, for by the aid 
of her privateers American maritime trade passed 
into English hands and was lost to the Americans. 

There are violations and violations. All vio- 
lations of neutrality are not of the same class as 
the German invasion of Belgium. And when a 
. violation of neutrality has been urged against 
England, she has shown a more commendable 
readiness to submit the matter to arbitration than 
any other nation. Of all the great Powers, Eng- 
land has stood longest and most ardently for the 
principle of arbitration, instead of demanding 
redress by arms. She submitted the celebrated 
"Alabama" claim alluded to above to arbitration, 
and paid the three millions damages accorded 
against her without any ill-feeling, 

"May God*s vengeance fall on Germany! She 
has violated Belgium's neutrality!'* the English 
piously ejaculate. They call themselves God's 
chosen people, the instrument of Providence for 
the benefit of the whole universe. They look down 
upon all other peoples with open, or silent, con- 
tempt, and claim for themselves various pre- 
rogatives, in particular the supremacy of the sea, 
even in American waters- — from Jamaica to 
Halifax. 

England's policy has always been to take all, 



114 The Real Truth About Germany 

to give back nothing, to constantly demand more, 
to begrudge others everything. Only where the 
New World is concerned has England, conscious 
of her weakness, become less grasping, since 
Benjamin Franklin ''wrested the scepter from the 
Tyrants," since the small colonies that fought so 
valiantly for their liberty rose to form the greatest 
dominion of the white race. 

When Germany violated Belgian neutrality, 
England did not appeal to heaven in the blas- 
phemous and patronizing language of the Kaiser. 
But though she was ruled at the time by a Govern- 
ment which has always urged consideration for 
Germany, and though she was willing to make any 
other sacrifice except the national honor for the 
maintenance of peace, she declared war. The 
sarcastic reference to England's attempted claim 
of the supremacy of the sea comes ill in a book 
issued by a committee with the chairman of the 
Hamburg-American Steamship Company at its 
head, for it is so undeniable that there is hardly 
a German ship, Hamburg-American or otherwise, 
afloat on the whole sea, except a few small 
cruisers and their colliers playing hide-and-seek. 
Nor is it very becoming in Germany to say that 
England's policy has always been to take all and 
give back nothing, for she gave Germany Heligo- 
land, and its Bight, in return for a little island off 
the east coast of Africa, and Germany would not 
have her New Guinea Colony (if, indeed, she still 
has it and did not lose it with the Bismarck 
Islands, when they were conquered by the Aus- 



Neutrality by the Grace of England 115 

tralian expedition) if Great Britain had not 
made Queensland give it up a short time before. 

In the summer of 191 1, during the Franco- 
German- Morocco dispute, the English were de- 
termined to assist their old enemies the French 
against Germany, and stationed 160,000 troops 
along their coast, ready for embarkation. For 
the French coast? No indeed! For transporta- 
tion to Antwerp, where the English were to unite 
with the French army and combine in the destruc- 
tion of the German forces. But things did not 
reach that stage. England was not ready. Eng- 
land and France were resolved not to respect the 
neutrality of Belgium — that same England that 
solemnly assures the world that she has never at 
any time or place committed a breach of neutral- 
ity. England has observed neutrality only when 
compatible with her own interests, which has not 
often been the case. Her whole dissimulating 
policy is much more questionable than our one 
breach of neutrality, committed in self-defense 
and accompanied by the most solemn promises 
of indemnity and restitution. 

This is a deliberate mis-statement. Not a man 
was moved. These troops could only have been 
sent at the request of Belgium, and not at the 
request of France. Belgium would have been 
very glad to have them at the outbreak of the 
present war, and it would have been a very good 
thing from the Belgian point of view. 

It is not true that England has observed neu- 



ii6 The Real Truth About Germany 

trality only when compatible with her own 
interests, or Germany would never have had the 
Kiel Canal. If England had consulted her own 
interests, she would obviously have prevented 
the dismemberment of Denmark. And when 
England did not sink the Russian fleet which had 
fired on the Grimsby trawlers as it was making 
its way to Japan, all the world wondered at our 
maintaining our neutrality, for Russia had been 
our persistent enemy in Asia and was actually at 
war with Japan, England's Ally, though we were 
not bound to support Japan with arms unless a 
second power attacked her. Such a phrase as 
" her whole dissimulating policy " is much more 
applicable to Germany than England. Germany 
was pretending to do her best to maintain peace 
when she had given directions to Austria to make 
war inevitable. England was honestly straining 
every nerve to have peace maintained, and all 
the chancelleries of Europe knew as well as they 
knew their ABC that if war happened, the 
British Government knew that it was its duty, 
and necessary to its self-preservation, to fight 
on the side of France, but that the majority of 
the party in power was against England's going to 
war if war could be honorably avoided. Germany 
was especially conscious of it, and traded on it. 

Mr. Lloyd George, in his great Queen's Hall 
speech of September 19th, has told us in very 
plain English the true story of Germany's viola- 
tion of Belgian neutrality : 

Just look at the interview which took place between our 
Ambassador and great German officials. When their 



Neutrality by the Grace of England 117 

attention was called to this treaty to which they were parties 
they said: "We cannot help that. " Rapidity of action was 
the great German asset. There is a greater asset for a 
nation than rapidity of action, and that is honest dealing. 
(Cheers.) What are her excuses? She says that Belgium 
was plotting against her; that Belgium was engaged in a 
great conspiracy with Britain and with France to attack 
her. Not merely is it not true, but Germany knows it 
is not true. What is her other excuse? France meant to 
invade Germany through Belgium. Absolutely untrue. 
France offered Belgium five Army Corps to defend her if she 
were attacked. Belgium said: "I don't require them, I 
have got the word of the Kaiser. Shall Caesar send a lie? " 

England and France did noir give up their plan 
of attacking Germany through Belgium, and by 
this means won the approval of the Muscovites. 
Three against one! It would have been a crime 
against the German people if the German General 
Staff had not anticipated this intention. The 
inalienable right of self-defense gives the indi- 
vidual, whose very existence is at stake, the moral 
liberty to resort to weapons which would be for- 
bidden except in times of peril. As Belgium 
would, nevertheless, not acquiesce in a friendly 
neutrality which would permit the unobstructed 
passage of German troops through small portions 
of her territory, although her integrity was guaran- 
teed, the German General Staff was obliged to 
force this passage in order to avoid the necessity 
of meeting the enemy on the most unfavorable 
ground. 

This is one of the most disingenuous para- 
graphs in a book whose whole purpose is to 



ii8 The Real Truth About Germany' 

deceive. There was no question of England and 
France trying to win the approval of the Musco- 
vites. Russia was the Power attacked, and 
Germany was attacking her. The whole conduct 
of the war shows that England and France could 
have had no idea of attacking Germany through 
Belgium because they were so unprepared for 
the contingency that, when they had Belgium on 
their side, and all her fortresses open to them, 
they had no plans ready to take their advantage, 
while the Germans had every yard of their 
march through Belgium planned out. To say 
that " the inalienable right of self-defense gives 
the individual whose every existence is at stake 
the moral liberty to resort to weapons which 
would be forbidden except in times of peril," 
applies to the man whose house is burgled, not 
to the burglar. Germany was unfortunately the 
burglar, who, if he carries a Browning pistol, as a 
rule does so without making any pious excuses. 

The contention that Germany had a right to 
force the passage of Belgium because Belgium 
would not consent to her neutrality being violated 
is the most impudent piece of treaty-breaking 
since the world began. Von Bernhardi has not 
lived in vain. 

The Germans have not forgotten the tone in 
which the French and Belgian press reported the 
frequent excursions of French Staff officers and 
Generals for the purpose of making an exhaustive 
study of the territory through which the armies 
are now moving, and who were received with open 



Neutrality by the Grace of England 1 19 

arms in Belgium and treated like brothers. Bel- 
gium has become the vassal of France. 

This is merely the German way of stating that 
French officers were frequently present at Bel- 
gian maneuvers. So were German officers. 
General French had the same opportunities of an 
exhaustive study of German territory when he 
was present at the German maneuvers. It is 
throwing dust in people's eyes to talk of Belgium 
having become the vassal of France. Sir Edward 
Grey demanded from France a promise that she 
would respect the neutrality of Belgium as 
categorical as the promise he demanded from 
Germany. In essentials the dispatches were 
identical. France gave it ; and that France meant 
what she said has never been disputed, and 
cannot be. 

It was in this connection that Mr. Lloyd George 
made one of the finest points of his great Queen's 
Hall speech — that France could have avoided the 
surrender at Sedan by violating Belgian territory. 

The French Army was wedged up against the Belgian 
frontier, every means of escape shut up by a ring of flame 
from Prussian cannon. There was one way of escape — by 
violating the neutrality of Belgium. The French on that 
occasion preferred ruin and humiliation to the breaking of 
their bond. The French Emperor, French marshals, 100,000 
gallant Frenchmen in arms, preferrred to be carried captive 
to the strange land of their enemy rather than dishonor the 
name of their country. It was the last French Army 
defeat. Had they violated Belgian neutrahty the whole 
history of that war would have been changed. And yet it 
was the interest of France to break the treaty. She did not 



120 The Real Truth About Germany^ 

do it. It is the interest of Prussia to break the treaty, and 
she has done it. ("Shame.") She avowed it with cynical 
contempt for every principle of justice. She says treaties 
only bind you when it is to your interest to keep them. 
What is a treaty? says the German Chancellor. "A scrap 
of paper." Have you any five-pound notes about you? I 
am not calling for them, (Laughter.) Have you any of 
those neat little Treasury one-pound notes? (Laughter.) 
If you have, burn them; they are only scraps of paper. 
(Cheers.) What are they made of? Rags. (Laughter.) 
What are they worth? The whole credit of the British 
Empire. (Cheers.) 

In our place the Government of the United 
States would not have acted differently. "Inter 
arma silent leges** — in the midst of arms the laws 
are silent. Besides, England had interfered be- 
forehand in Germany's plan of campaign by 
declaring that she would not tolerate an attack 
upon the northern coast of France. 

To say that President Wilson, with his inter- 
national jurist's mind, would have violated 
Belgian neutrality as Germany did, would be an 
insult to the United States if it were not so ludi- 
crous, and only the country of von Bernhardi 
would have pleaded as an excuse for violating 
Belgium's neutrality that England had interfered 
beforehand in Germany's plan of campaign by 
declaring that she would not tolerate an attack 
upon the northern coast of France. What would 
President Wilson say to this? What on earth 
had it to do with Belgium ? 

The German troops, with their iron discipline, 
will respect the personal property and liberty of 



Neutrality by the Grace of England 121 

the individual in Belgium, just as they did in 
France in 1870. 

This passage is one of the outstanding features 
of Germany's appeal to posterity conveyed in the 
eighty-six pages of " Truth about Germany; 
Facts about the War." 

The destruction of Louvain is an instance of 
this " iron discipline." The common soldiers 
are understood to have been appalled by it, but 
submitted to the orders of their general and their 
officers. It and the atrocities submitted by the 
Belgian Government to the President of the 
United States form the subject of an appendix at 
the end of this chapter. 

Mr. Lloyd George in his Queen's Hall speech, 
said: 

Belgium has been treated brutally — how brutally we shall 
not yet know. We know already too much. What had she 
done? Had she sent an ultimatum to Germany? Had she 
challenged Germany? Was she preparing to make war on Ger- 
many? Had she inflicted any wrong upon Germany which 
the Kaiser was bound to redress? She was one of the most 
unoffending little countries in Europe. There she was 
peaceable, industrious, thrifty, hardworking, giving offense 
to no one. Her cornfields have been trampled down. Her 
villages have been burned to the ground. Her art treasures 
have been destroyed. Her men have been slaughtered ; yes, 
and her women and her children too. What had she done? 
Hundreds and thousands of her people, their neat, comfort- 
able little homes burnt to the dust, wandering homeless in 
their own land. What was their crime? Their crime was 
that they trusted to the word of a Prussian King. 

I am not depending on them {i.e., the Belgians). It is 
enough for me to have the story which the Germans them- 



122 The Real Truth About Germany 

selves avow, admit, defend, proclaim. The burning and 
massacring, the shooting down of harmless people. Why? 
Because, according to the Germans, they fired on German 
soldiers. What business had German soldiers there at all? 
(Cheers.) Belgium was acting in pursuance of a most sacred 
right, the right to defend your own home. But they were 
not in uniform when they shot. If a burglar broke into the 
Kaiser's palace at Potsdam, destroyed his furniture, shot 
down his servants, ruined his art treasures, especially those 
he made himself — (laughter and cheers) — burned his precious 
manuscripts, do you think he would wait until he got into 
uniform before he shot him down? (Laughter.) They were 
dealing with those who had broken into their households. 

Rheims Cathedral was one of the most precious heritages 
of all mankind, as it did not belong to any individual; the 
German troops, with their iron discipline, probably saw no 
reason why they should respect it. 

The Belgians would have been wise if they had 
permitted the passage of the German troops. 
They would have preserved their integrity, and 
besides that, would have fared well from the 
business point of view, for the army would have 
proved a good customer and paid cash. 

The idea that the Belgians should put their 
neutrality up to auction is in von Bernhardi's 
best manner. He might have illustrated it with a 
cartoon of Germany as the wolf making the sug- 
gestion to Belgium as Little Red Riding-Hood. 

The suggestion here, " it may be dishonorable 
but it will pay," is thoroughly German, Through- 
out there is no reference to the fact that by treaty 
Belgium was bound to preserve her neutrality. 

Germany has always been a good and just 
neighbor, to Belgium as well as to the other small 



Neutrality by the Grace of England 123 

Powers such as Holland, Denmark, and Switzer- 
land, which England in her place would have 
swallowed up one and all long ago. 

It is difficult to understand why Belgiiim, 
Holland, and Denmark should have been less 
afraid of " their good and just neighbor, " Ger- 
many, whose access to the sea they barred, than 
of England, who, had she possessed them, would 
have needed an army of four millions to defend 
her frontiers from " the good and just neighbor " 
in return for getting ports not so good as her own 
on the sea which she already dominates! It is 
inconceivable that England, if she had been in 
Germany's position, would have been such a fool 
as to knock her head against the stone wall of 
Switzerland. The idea of Germany being a good 
and just neighbor to Denmark, whom she robbed 
of Schleswig-Holstein and the site of the Kiel 
Canal, will strike the Americans, for whom the 
book was written, as very humorous. They will 
suspect " Count John Bernstorff " of having 
inspired this passage. 

It does not appear that Holland's view of the 
good and just neighbor differs from that of Bel- 
gium and Denmark. 

The development of industry on the lower 
Rhine has added to the prosperity of Belgium and 
has made Antwerp one of the first ports on the 
Continent, as well as one of the most important 
centers of exchange for German-American trade. 

It may be admitted that German commerce has 
added greatly to the prosperity of Antwerp. Ant- 



124 The Real Truth About Germany 

werp liked German commerce, but she liked 
Germany so little that she made the fortifications 
of Antwerp on the land side the most powerful in 
Europe. 

Without Germany Belgium could never have 
acquired the Congo. 

When England meditated taking possession of 
the Congo, claiming that great rivers are nothing 
but arms of the sea, and consequently belong to 
the supreme maritime power, King Leopold turned 
to Germany for protection and received it from 
Bismarck, who called the Congo Conference of 
1884-5 and obtained the recognition by the Powers 
of the independence of the Congo State. 

England certainly never made any such pre- 
posterous claim. 

If Germany did assist, not Belgium, but the 
late King of the Belgians, to acquire the Congo 
State, it was only because Belgium was a small 
Power from whom, in the fullness of time, she 
would be able to steal the Congo, even if she did 
not steal Belgium with it. England was a great 
Power, with such a gigantic fleet that there was 
no chance of stealing any colonies from her until 
she was herself conquered. 

The struggle of the German States in Europe 
has some points in common with the struggle of 
the Independent States of North America (from 
1778 to 1783), for it is directed chiefly against 



Neutrality by the Grace of England 125 

England's scheming guardianship, and her practice 
of weakening the Continental Powers by sowing 
or fostering dissension among them. 

It is one of the prize lies in the collection to say 
that the Austro-German Alliance is " directed 
chiefly against England's scheming guardianship 
and her practice of weakening the Continental 
Powers by sowing or fostering dissension among 
them." It is universally recognized that no one 
has worked harder for a concert of Europe than 
Sir Edward Grey, and all through the Balkan 
crisis he worked successfully, though under great 
difSculties. The Triple Alliance of Germany, 
Austria, and Italy was formed because Germany 
was afraid of Russia, which she perceived would 
become too powerful if allied to a strong France. 
The sympathies of England were at the time with 
Germany, and were wantonly alienated by the 
present Kaiser. Until 191 1, when Mr. Lloyd 
George uttered his warning over the second 
Morocco incident, any German military politician 
would have screamed with contemptuous laugh- 
ter at the idea of England having the pluck to 
fight about anything, or the sense to stand by her 
friends. Until last month Germany regarded the 
possibility of England's interference as negligible. 

There is only one resemblance between the 
present war and the American War of Independ- 
ence, and that is that England lost then because 
most of the rest of the world was leagued against 
her power over the sea, as most of the rest of 
the world is now leagued against Germany's 
hegemony. 



126 The Real Truth About Germany 

While continually protesting her love of peace, 
England has carried on no fewer than forty wars 
during the latter half of the nineteenth century, 
including the great Boer War. She has long im- 
perilled, and in the end has succeeded in disturb- 
ing, the peace of Europe by her invidious policy 
of isolating Germany. Germany, on the other 
hand, has proved herself since 1871 to be the 
strongest and most reliable security for the peace 
of Europe. 

It is true that England had many wars in the 
last half of the nineteenth century, but none of 
them, except the Crimean War, were of her own 
seeking, and of the others only the South African 
and Indian Mutinies were of any great importance. 

To say that she has long imperilled the peace of 
Europe by her policy of isolating Germany, since 
Germany^s attempt to make a coalition with 
Russia and France against her, is to turn the 
truth inside out. Nothing but the knowledge that 
King Edward VII. had arranged an entente of 
nearly all non-Teutonic Europe (including Italy, 
which was nominally the ally of the Teutonic 
Powers) kept Germany from going to war with 
first this State and then the other to rob them of 
provinces as she had robbed France and Denmark. 
When German military brigandage has once been 
extinguished, there will be peace in Europe for 
fifty years. 

The policy of sowing dissension, practised by 
England more industriously than ever in recent 
years, cannot possibly meet with the approval 



Neutrality by the Grace of England 127 

of the peace-loving citizens of the United States, 
and should be condemned on merely humanitarian 
as well as commercial grounds. 

" The peace-loving citizens of the United 
States " know better than anyone else how anx- 
ious Great Britain has been to refer every inter- 
national trouble to arbitration. They know that 
Sir Edward Gr^y went so far as to offer to make a 
General Peace Treaty with the U. S, A. They 
know that Germany, if she were powerful enough 
to bully the United States and at the same time 
keep her powder dry for Europe, would upset the 
Monroe Doctrine to-morrow to establish German 
colonies in South America, and they will see no 
humanitarian reasons for being suspicious of 
England, who is watching the brigand in Europe. 

England aims at being mistress of the Old World 
in order to occupy either an equal, or a menacing, 
position towards the New World, as circumstances 
may dictate. For this purpose she has encouraged 
this war. The German Federated States of 
Europe are defending themselves with might and 
main, and are counting in this struggle for exist- 
ence on the goodwill of the United States of 
America, for whose citizens they cherish the 
friendliest feelings, as they have proved at all 
times. All Americans who have visited Germany 
will surely bear witness to that effect. 

Nothing is further from England than aiming at 
a hegemony of the continent of Europe. When 



128 The Real Truth About Germany 

she owned half France as well as the British 
Islands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, 
she never once invaded what is now Germany. 
And her historians are unanimous in the conten- 
tion that losing her possessions in France gave 
England her position in the world. She has not 
the slightest wish to be the mistress of the Old 
World, except as regards the southern peninsula 
of Asia, known generally as India. She desires 
absolute peace in Europe, absolute detachment 
from Europe in all matters except commerce, in 
order to be the center of a great Imperial Federa- 
tion of Colonies. 

Germany is as aware of this as America is, and 
she knows that a man has to be as mad as the 
drowned King of Bavaria to imagine that England 
has the smallest design at the expense of the 
United States. Americans will hardly believe 
their senses when they read that a representative 
committee of Germans like Prince Biilow, Field- 
Marshal von der Goltz, Count Reventlow, and the 
heads of the Hamburg-American and the North 
German Lloyd Steamship Companies and the 
Deutsche Bank, have seriously allowed a book to 
go forth under their names, which suggests that 
England has got up this war in Europe with a view 
to attacking the United States afterwards. The 
poor attacked Germany and Austria, who really 
precipitated this war so deliberately, advance this 
tomfoolery as a reason why the United States 
should extend them their active sympathy in the 
struggle. The American will enjoy his character 
for simplicity. 



APPENDIX— ON THE GERMAN ATROCITIES AT 

LOUVAIN, DINANT, AERSCHOT, AND 

TERMONDE 

The Press Bureau issued this translation of the second report 
of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry on the violation of the 
Rights of Nations and of the Laws and Customs of War : 

To MoNS. Carton de Wiart, Minister of Justice. 

Antwerp, August 31st, 1914. 

Sir, — The Commission of Inquiry have the honor to make 
the following report on acts of which the town of Louvain, the 
neighborhood and district of Malines have been the scene: 

The German army entered Louvain on Wednesday, August 
19th, after having burnt down the villages through which it had 
passed. As soon as they had entered the town of Louvain the 
Germans requisitioned food and lodging for their troops. They 
went to all the banks of the town, and took possession of the cash 
in hand. German soldiers burst open the doors of houses which 
had been abandoned by their inhabitants, pillaged them, and 
committed other excesses. 

The German authorities took as hostages the Mayor of the city, 
Senator Van der Kelen, the Vice-Rector of the Catholic Univers- 
ity, and the senior priest of the city, besides certain magistrates 
and aldermen. All the weapons possessed by the inhabitants, 
even fencing swords, had already been given up to the municipal 
authorities, and placed by them in the church of Saint Pierre. 

GIRL RAPED 

In a neighboring village, Corbeck-Loo, on Wednesday, August 
19th, a young woman, aged twenty-two, whose husband was with 
the army, and some of her relations were surprised by a band 
of German soldiers. The persons who were with her were locked 
up in a deserted house, while she herself was dragged into another 

9 129 



I30 The Real Truth About Germany 

cottage, where she was raped by five soldiers successively. 
In the same village, on Thursday, August 20th, German soldiers 
fetched from their house a young girl, about sixteen years old, 
and her parents. They conducted them to a small deserted 
country house, and while some of them held back the father and 
mother, others entered the house, and, finding the cellar open, 
forced the girl to drink. They then brought her on to the lawn 
in front of the house, and raped her successively. Finally, they 
stabbed her in the breast with their bayonets. When this young 
girl had been abandoned by them after these abominable deeds, 
she was brought back to her parents' house, and the following day, 
in view of the gravity of her condition, she received extreme 
unction from the parish priest, and was taken to the hospital of 
Louvain, as her life was despaired of. 

On August 24th and 25th Belgian troops made a sortie from 
the entrenched camp of Antwerp, and attacked the German army 
before Malines. The Germans were thrown back on Louvain and 
Vilvorde. On entering the villages which had been occupied by 
the enemy, the Belgian army found them devastated. The 
Germans, as they retired, had pillaged and burnt the villages, 
taking with them the male inhabitants, whom they forced to 
march in front of them. Belgian soldiers entering Hofstade, 
on August 25th, found the body of an old woman, who had been 
killed by bayonet thrusts. She still held in her hand the needle 
with which she was sewing when she was killed. A woman and 
her fifteen- or sixteen-year-old son lay on the ground, pierced by 
bayonets. A man had been hanged. 

WORSE THAN THE TORTURES OF THE INQUISITION. 
ROASTING VICTIMS 

At Sempst, a neighboring village, were found the bodies of 
two men, partially carbonized. One of them had his legs cut off 
at the knees; the other had the arms and legs cut off. A work- 
man, whose burnt body has been seen by several witnesses, had 
been struck several times with bayonets, and then, while still alive 
the Germans had poured petroleum over him, and thrown him 
into a house to which they set fire. A woman who came out of 
her house was killed in the same way. A witness, whose evidence 
has been taken by a reliable British subject, declares that he saw 



Appendix — German Atrocities 131 

on August 26th, not far from Malines, during the last Belgian 
attack, an old man tied by the arms to one of the rafters in the 
ceiling of his farm. The body was completely carbonized, but 
the head, arms and feet were unburnt. Further on, a child of 
about fifteen was tied up, the hands behind the back, and the 
body was completely torn open with bayonet wounds. Numer- 
ous corpses of peasants lay on the ground in positions of supplica- 
tion, their arms lifted and their hands clasped. 

The Belgian Consul in Uganda, who is now a volunteer in the 
Belgian army, reports that wherever the Germans passed the 
country has been devastated. The few inhabitants who remain 
in the villages tell of the atrocities committed by the enemy. 
Thus, at Wackerzeel, seven Germans are said to have successively 
violated a woman, and then to have killed her. In the same 
village they stripped a young boy to the waist, threatened him 
with death, holding a revolver to his chest, pricked him with 
lances, and then chased him into a field and shot at him, without, 
however, hitting him. Everywhere there is ruin and devastation. 
At Buecken many inhabitants were killed, including the priest, 
who was over eighty years old. 

Between Impde and Wolverthem, two wounded Belgian soldiers 
lay near a house which was on fire. The Germans threw these 
two unfortunate men into the flames. At nightfall on August 
26th, the German troops, repulsed by our soldiers, entered 
Louvain panic-stricken. Several witnesses affirm that the 
German garrison which occupied Louvain was erroneously in- 
formed that the enemy were entering the town. Men of the 
garrison immediately marched to the station, shooting haphazard 
the while, and there met the German troops who had been re- 
pulsed by the Belgians, the latter having just ceased the pursuit. 

THE SACK OF LOUVAIN ' 

Everything tends to prove that the German regiments fired on 
one another. At once, the Germans began bombarding the town, 
pretending that civilians had fired on the troops, a suggestion 
which is contradicted by all the witnesses, and could scarcely have 
been possible, because the inhabitants of Louvain had had to give 
up their arms to the municipal authorities several days before. 
The bombardment lasted till about ten o'clock at night. The 



132 The Real Truth About Germany 

Germans then set fire to the town. Wherever the fire had not 
spread, the German soldiers entered the houses and threw fire 
grenades, with which some of them seem to be provided. The 
greater part of the town of Louvain was thus a prey to the flames, 
particularly the quarters of the upper town, comprising the 
modern buildings, the ancient cathedral of St. Pierre, the Univer- 
sity buildings, together with the University Library, its manu- 
scripts and collections, and the Municipal Theater. 

The Commission considers it its duty to insist, in the midst of 
all these horrors, on the crime committed against civilization by 
the deliberate destruction of an academic library, which was one 
of the treasures of Europe. 

The corpses of many civilians encumbered the streets and 
squares. On the road from Tirlemont to Louvain alone a wit- 
ness counted more than fifty. On the doorsteps of houses could 
be seen carbonized bodies of inhabitants, who, hiding in their 
cellars, were driven out by the fire, tried to escape, and fell into 
the flames. The suburbs of Louvain suffered the same fate. 
We can affirm that the houses in all the districts between Louvain 
and Malines, and most of the suburbs of Louvain itself, have 
practically been destroyed. 

A REFINEMENT OF TORTURE 

On Wednesday morning, August 26th, the Germans brought 
to the station squares of Louvain a group of more than seventy- 
five persons, including several prominent citizens of the town, 
amongst whom were Father Coloboet and another Spanish priest, 
and also an American priest. The men were brutally separated 
from their wives and children, and, after having been subjected to 
the most abominable treatment by the Germans, who several 
times threatened to shoot them, they were forced to march to 
the village of Campenhout in front of the German troops. They 
were shut up in the village church, where they passed the night. 
About four o'clock the next morning a German officer told them 
they had better go to confessional, as they would be shot half an 
hour later. About half -past four they were liberated. Shortly 
afterwards they were again arrested by a German brigade, which 
forced them to march before them in the direction of Malines. 
In reply to a question of one of the prisoners, a German officer said 
they were going to give them a taste of the Belgian quickfirers 



Appendix — German Atrocities 133 

before Antwerp. They were at last released on the Thursday 
afternoon at the gates of Malines. 

THE BURNT WHITE FLAG 

It appears from other witnesses that several thousand male 
inhabitants of Louvain who had escaped the shooting and the 
fire were sent to Germany for a purpose which is still unknown 
to us. 

The fire at Louvain burnt for several days. An eye-witness, 
who left Louvain on August 30th, gave the following description 
of the town at that time: "Leaving Weert St. George's, " he says, 
"I only saw burnt-down villages and half-crazy peasants, who, 
on meeting anyone, held up their hands as a sign of submission. 
Before every house, even those burnt down, hung a white flag, 
and the burnt rags of them could be seen among the ruins. At 
Weert St. George's I questioned the inhabitants on the causes of 
the German reprisals, and they affirmed most positively that no 
inhabitant had fired a shot, that in any case tjie arms had been 
previously collected, but that the Germans had taken vengeance 
on the population because a Belgian soldier belonging to the 
gendarmerie had killed an Uhlan." 

CONTINUED INCENDIARISM AT LOUVAIN 

"The population still remaining in Louvain have taken refuge 
in the suburb of Heverle, where they are extremely crowded. 
They have been cleared out of the town by the troops and the 
fire. The fire started a little beyond the American College, and 
the town is entirely destroyed, except for the Town Hall and the 
station. Furthermore, the fire was still burning to-day, and the 
Germans, far from taking any steps to stop it, seemed to feed it 
with straw, an instance of which I observed in the street adjoining 
the Town Hall. The cathedral and the theater are destroyed and 
have fallen in, as also the library; in short, the town has the 
appearance of an ancient ruined city, in the midst of which only 
a few drunken soldiers move about, carrying bottles of wine and 
liqueurs, while the officers themselves, seated in arm-chairs round 
the tables, drink like their men. In the streets the swollen bodies 
of dead horses rot in the sun, and the smell of fire and putrefaction 
pervades the whole place." 



134 The Real Truth About Germany 

HOW THE GERMANS RUN AMOK IN A COUNTRY 

THEY INVADE 

The Commission has not yet been able to obtain information 
about the fate of the Mayor of Louvain and of the other notables 
who were taken as hostages. The Commission is able to draw 
the following conclusions from the facts which have so far been 
brought to its notice: 

In this war the occupation of any place is systematically 
accompanied and followed — sometimes even preceded — by acts 
of violence towards the civil population, which acts are contrary 
both to the usages of war and to the most elementary principles 
of humanity. 

The German procedure is everywhere the same. They advance 
along a road, shooting inoffensive passers-by, particularly bi- 
cyclists, as well as peasants working in the fields. 

In the towns or villages where they stop they begin by requisi- 
tioning food and drink, which they consume till intoxicated. 

Sometimes, from the interior of deserted houses, the}'' let off 
their rifles at random, and declare that it was the inhabitants who 
fired. Then the seer." of fire, murder, and especially pillage, 
begin, accompanied by acts of deliberate cruelty, without respect 
to sex or age. Even where they pretend to know the actual 
person guilty of the acts they allege they do not content them- 
selves with executing him summarily, but they seize the oppor- 
tunity to decimate the population, pillage the houses, and then 
set them on fire. 

After a preliminary attack and massacre they shut up the men 
in the church, and then order the women to return to their houses, 
and to leave their doors open all night. 

SCREENS OF CIVILIANS IN ACTION. ABUSE OF THE 
WHITE FLAG AND THE RED CROSS 

From several places the male population has been sent to 
Germany, there to be forced, it appears, to work at the harvest, 
as in the old days of slavery. There are many cases of the 
inhabitants being forced to act as guides, and to dig trenches and 
entrenchments for the Germans. Numerous witnesses assert that 
during their marches, and even when attacking, the Germans 
place civilians — men and women — in their front ranks, in order 



Appendix — German Atrocities 135 

to prevent our soldiers firing. The evidence of Belgian officers 
and soldiers shows that German detachments do not hesitate to 
display either the white flag or the Red Cross flag, in order to 
approach our troops with impunity. 

On the other hand, they fire on our ambulances and maltreat 
the ambulance men. They maltreat, and even kill, the wounded. 
The clergy seem to be particularly chosen as subjects for their 
brutality. Finally, we have in our possession expanding bullets, 
which had been abandoned by the enemy at Werchter, and we 
possess doctors' certificates showing that wounds must have been 
inflicted by bullets of this kind. 

The documents and evidence on which these conclusions rest 
will be published in due course. 
The President, 

(Signed) Cooreman. 
The Members of the Commission, 

(Signed) Count Goblet d'Alviella. 
Ryckmans. 
Strauss. 
Van Cutsem. 
The Secretaries, 

(Signed) Chevalier Ernst de 
BuNswYCK. Orts. 

Statement issued by Official Press Bureau, August 30th, 19 14: 

"The assumption of the German commander was, under the 
circumstances, so wide of probability, that it can only be supposed 
that, in the desire to conceal the facts, the first idea which oc- 
curred to him was seized upon as an excuse for an act without 
parallel in the history of civilized peoples. 

"Louvain, a town of 45,000 people, a seat of learning, famous 
for its ancient and beautiful churches, and other buildings, many 
of them dating from the fifteenth century, has been utterly 
destroyed by one of the Kaiser's commanders, in a moment of 
passion, to cover a blunder of his own men. 

"A town which in the Middle Ages was the capital of Brabant; 
a University founded in 1426, and ranked in the sixteenth century 
as the first in Europe; an H6tel de Ville dating from 1448, one 
of the most beautiful examples of late Gothic architecture; 



136 The Real Truth About Germany 

several churches of about the same date, to name one only, St. 
Pierre, with its wonderful stained glass windows, its beautiful 
tabernacle, and its richly carved organ, dating from 1556 — all 
these have gone to revenge a fancied offense against the troops 
of the Kaiser. 

"Only yesterday it was announced that the Emperor William 
had stated that 'the only means of preventing surprise attacks 
from the civil population has been to interfere with unrelenting 
severity and to create examples which by their frightfulness 
would be a warning to the whole country.' The case of Lou- 
vain is such an * interference,' without even the miserable excuse 
suggested. 

"Louvain is miles from the scene of real fighting. In inter- 
national law it is recognized that ' the only legitimate end which 
the States would aim at in war is the weakening of the military 
forces of the enemy,' and the rules under the annex to Convention 
IV. of 1907, which expanded and amended the provisions of the 
Declaration of Brussels, lay down 'any destruction or seizure of 
enemy property not imperatively called for by military neces- 
sities' as forbidden. 

"In destroying the ancient town of Louvain the German troops 
have committed a crime for which there can be no atonement, 
and humanity has suffered a loss which can never be repaired. " 

MURDERS AT DINANT 

The Daily Mail, September 8th, 19 14: 

"Ostend, Monday. 

"The Germans in a few hours by shell-fire and incendiarism 
have destroyed Dinant-sur-Meuse. 

"The women were confined in convents, while hundreds of 
men were shot. 

"A hundred prominent citizens were shot in the Place d'Armes. 

" M. Hummers, the manager of a large weaving factory employ- 
ing two thousand men, and M. Poncelet, the son of a former 
senator, were both shot, the latter in the presence of his six 
children. 

"The Germans appeared at the branch of the National Bank, 
where they demanded all the cash in the safe. When M. Was- 
beize, the manager, refused to give them the money they tried to 



Appendix — German Atrocities 137 

blow the safe open. Not succeeding in this, they demanded the 
combination for the lock. The manager refused, whereupon the 
Germans shot him immediately, together with his two sons. 

"The Prussians assert that these excesses have been committed 
because shots had been fired, though admittedly without result, 
from the heights overlooking Dinant. " — Renter. 

MURDERS AT AERSCHOT 
The Times, August 26th, 1914: 

"They then compelled the inhabitants to leave their houses 
and marched them to a place two hundred yards from the town. 
There, without more ado, they shot M, Thielemans, the Burgo- 
master, his fifteen-year-old son, the clerk of the local judicial 
board, and ten prominent citizens. They then set fire to the 
town and destroyed it." 

From the Belgian Minister's statement 
"Murder of the Mayor of Aerschot." 

DESTRUCTION AT TERMONDE 

The Daily Telegraph, September 20th, 19 14: 

"On Wednesday, accompanied by M. Braun, I made a success- 
ful attempt to enter Termonde under most dangerous conditions. 
In some parts the streets were occupied by German soldiers. 
What a sight met our eyes ! The Termonde I had known under 
circumstances so different — a quiet, pretty market town — now 
little more than a huge heap of blackened ruins. The Grande 
Place, with the exception of the H6tel de Ville, on the roof of 
which the German flag hung limply, as though it were ashamed 
to float over the desolate scene, was in ruins. The hotel at which 
I had so often dined was reduced to a mass of debris. Termonde, 
indeed, was a city of desolation, caused by the devastating German 
hordes of savages. Here I obtained full proof of the statement of 
M. Thibbaut, regarding the treatment of women and the horrible 
debaucheries of the invaders. The scene at Termonde and the 
knowledge of what had happened there were enough to rouse 
every Christian to a determination to see that a nation capable 
of such enormities shall be wiped out forever. " 



138 The Real Truth About Germany 

JUSTIFICATION IN THE LEADING GERMAN 
NEWSPAPERS 

The Times t August 31st, 19 14: 

From The Times correspondent at Copenhagen, August 28th. 

"The Vossiche Zeitung's account of the destruction of Louvain 
as a punishment for an alleged organized attack by the inhabitants 
on the German troops is characteristically cold-blooded. 'The 
art treasures of the old town exist no more.* Lovers of art will 
grieve, it continues, but there was no other way of punishing this 
population, whose devilish women poured boiling oil over the 
German troops. 

"The Lokalanzeiger says the world will realize that the blame 
rests with the half -civilized population. " 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER VII 

The Right Honorable D. Lloyd George in his speech to the 
Welsh at the Queen's Hall, September 19th, 1914: 

The world owes much to little nations (cheers) and to little 
men. (Laughter and cheers.) This theory of bigness — you must 
have a big empire and a big nation and a big man — well, long 
legs have their advantage in a retreat. (Laughter.) Frederick 
the Great chose his warriors for their height, and that tradition 
has become a policy in Germany. Germany applies that ideal to 
nations. She will allow only six-feet-two nations to stand in the 
ranks. But all the world owes much to the little five-feet-high 
nations. (Cheers.) The greatest art of the world was the work 
of little nations. The most enduring literature of the world 
came from little nations. The greatest literature of England 
came from her when she was a nation of the size of Belgium fight- 
ing a great empire. The heroic deeds that thrill humanity 
through generations were the deeds of little nations fighting for 
their freedom. Ah, yes, and the salvation of mankind came 
through a little nation. God has chosen little nations as the 
vessels by which he carries the choicest wines to the lips of 
humanity, to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to stimu- 
late and to strengthen their faith, and if we had stood by when two 
little nations were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands 
of barbarism our shame would have rung down the everlasting 
ages. (Cheers.) 

But Germany insists that this is an attack by a low civiliza- 
tion upon a higher. Well, as a matter of fact the attack was 
begun by the civilization which calls itself the higher one. Now, 
I am no apologist for Russia. She has perpetrated deeds of which 
I have no doubt her best sons are ashamed. But what empire 
has not? And Germany is the last empire to point the finger of 
reproach at Russia. (Hear, hear.) But Russia has made 

139 



140 The Real Truth About Germany 

sacrifices for freedom — great sacrifices. You remember the cry 
of Bulgaria when she was torn by the most insensate tyranny 
that Europe has ever seen. Who Hstened to the cry? The only 
answer of the higher civilization was that the liberty of Bulgarian 
peasants was not worth the life of a single Pomeranian soldier. 
But the rude barbarians of the north, they sent their sons by the 
thousands to die for Bulgarian freedom. (Cheers.) 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ATTITUDE OF GERMANY'S ENEMIES 
GERMANY OVERRUN BY SPIES FOR YEARS PAST 

IF Germany has been overrun by spies for years 
past, she cannot complain of it without re- 
calling the old fable of the pot calling the kettle 
black, for the number of her own spies must be a 
serious strain on the recruiting for the army — 
unless, indeed, there is a secret law of the 
Deutsches Reich that when a man has passed the 
age at which he can serve in the Landsturm he 
should take his place in the noble army of spies. 
Her enemies can only wish that Germany should 
be so hard pressed that she should call up her 
spies to take their place in East Prussia. If Ger- 
many is overrun with spies, it is quite certain that 
they must nearly all be Russians. The French 
and English supply of linguists is too limited. 

On the other hand, the whole of Europe, es- 
pecially England, is overrun with this lowest 
division of the Kaiser's army. 

It goes without saying, that in time of war the 

respective participants seek to gain for themselves 

every possible advantage, including, as not the 

least of the advantages, that of having public 

opinion on their side. It is equally understand- 

141 



142 The Real Truth About Germany 

able that governments, for political or military- 
reasons, often endeavor to conceal their real inten- 
tions until the decisive moment. In this matter, 
however, as in the conduct of war itself, there 
exists the basic principle, acknowledged through- 
out the civilized world, that no methods may be 
employed which could not be employed by men of 
honor even when they are opponents. 

The pot pursues its task of blackening the 
kettle. The writer of this book hints that people 
at war have to try and win public opinion to their 
side, and that their Governments are sometimes 
obliged to conceal their real intentions till the last 
moment, but that there is a " basic principle j 
acknowledged throughout the civilized world, 
that no methods may be employed which could 
not be employed by men of honor even when they 
are opponents." This is too bad ; it is like throw- 
ing mud at von Bernhardi. Besides, it is like 
telling some of the highest-placed personages at 
Potsdam that they are no gentlemen. Prince 
Lichnowsky is in the Kaiser^s black books because 
his second telegram, saying that England had 
not promised to keep France neutral if Germany 
went to war with Russia, but only if Austria went 
to war with Russia, by herself, was suppressed in 
the German Foreign Office. The late General 
Grierson was the victim of a similar piece of 
treachery. 

Letter from "A Gunner," friend and brother-officer of 
the late Sir James Grierson, reporting conversation with 
him, in The Times, August 26th, 19 14: 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 143 

"I asked him why he did not stay out his full time at 
Berlin when military attach^. He said: 'Because I simply 
could not stand any more of it. The place is a perfect 
hotbed of intrigue.' 'What sort of a man is the Kaiser 
himself?' I inquired, 'Oh,' he said, 'he is all right. He's 
a gentleman. But those around him are perfectly poisonous. 
This is the sort of thing they do. One day the Emperor 
suddenly said to me: "I am told, Colonel Grierson, but I 
need hardly say that I don't for one moment believe it, that 
you have given away to the French all the secrets of our Q, F. 
Artillery. Now I wish you would find out where that 
statement comes from, and put it in the form of an official 
report, and send it in to me through the War Office, saying 
that you do so by my special personal request. " In less than 
a week,' Sir James continued, 'I found that it originated 

with , exactly as I expected it had, and so I duly sent 

it in as requested. Shortly afterwards I went on leave for 
about a month, and when I returned, the first thing the 
Emperor said to me was: "Oh, Colonel Grierson, you never 
sent me in that report I asked you for about our Q. F. 
Artillery." "I beg Your Majesty's pardon," I said, "but 
I sent it in in less than a week after you asked for it. " 
"Well," said the Kaiser, "I have never received it. But I 
will inquire about it. " Sure enough, the very next morn- 
ing,' said the General, 'a whole row of them were down at 

my place, headed by himself, making most profuse 

apologies for the unfortunate oversight by which my report 
had been delayed, etc. ' " 

One cannot, unfortunately, acquit Russia of the 
charge of employing improper politics against 
Germany. It must, unfortunately, be said that 
even the Czar himself did not, at the breaking out 
of hostilities against Germany, show himself the 
gentleman upon a throne which he had formerly 
been believed by everyone to be. 

The Russian Emperor addressed himself to 
Kaiser William in moving and friendly expressions, 



144 The Real Truth About Germany 

in which, pledging his solemn word and appealing 
to the grace of God, he besought the Kaiser, 
shortly before the outbreak of the war, to inter- 
vene at Vienna. There exists between Austria- 
Hungary and Germany an ancient and firm alliance 
which makes it the duty of both governments to 
offer unconditional support to each other in the 
moment that either one's vital interests come into 
question. There can be no doubt that the exist- 
ence of Austria-Hungary is threatened by the 
Servian agitation. Despite this, the German 
Emperor, in offering his final counsels respecting 
the treatment of Servia and the concessions to be 
made to Russia, went, in his desire for peace, 
almost to the point where Austria could have had 
doubts of Germany's fidelity to the obligations 
of the alliance. 

The accusation that the Czar did not keep 
faith with Germany resolves itself into the Kaiser 
attributing his own insincerities to the Czar. 

Undoubtedly the Czar did in the most solemn 
manner appeal to the Kaiser to intervene at 
Vienna, to prevent Austria proceeding to extremi- 
ties with Servia before the great Powers had done 
their best to straighten out the question. Un- 
doubtedly there is the closest alliance between 
Germany and Austria to support each other 
unconditionally when any vital interest of either 
is in question. Allow that the existence of Austria- 
Hungary was threatened by Servian agitation, 
though integrity is the proper word, the German 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 145 

Emperor told England and Russia that he must 
leave his ally unfettered to form her own opinions ; 
the writer of this volume of blandishments in- 
forms the guileless American that the German 
Emperor " in offering his final counsels respect- 
ing the treatment of Servia^ and the concessions 
to be made to Russia, went in his desire for peace 
almost to the point where Austria could have had 
doubts of Germany*s fidelity." Austria had the 
best possible reason for doubting its fidelity, 
having sent the ultimatum to Servia at Germany^s 
orders and insisted on an answer in forty-eight 
hours, to demands so outrageous that there was 
practically no chance of the war not happening. 

In a remarkable letter to " The Times," of 
September 22nd, Mr. W. Llewellyn Williams, 
puts the whole matter in a nutshell. "Inter 
alia " he says : 

"It almost looks as if the Kaiser had hoped to play the 
same role again in July, 19 14 (as in 1909). The White Paper 
contains ample evidence (see, e.g., Nos. 32, 47, and 71) that 
both Germany and Austria believed that the Powers of the 
Triple Entente were not prepared to go to war with Servia. 
The precipitancy of Germany, therefore, in sending the 
ultimatum to Russia on July 30th, at a time when Austria 
had not 'banged the door,' may be explainable on the sup- 
position that she wanted to score another diplomatic triumph 
on her own account and share none of it with her ally. " 

He then proceeds to prove the guilt of Austria 
with damning terseness : 

"On July 20th the Russian Ambassador, anticipating no 
crisis, left Vienna on a fortnight's leave of absence. No 
sooner was his back turned than Austria, on July 23rd, de- 
livered her ultimatum to Servia. The ultimatum was 



10 



146 The Real Truth About Germany 

accompanied by a forty-eight-hours' time-limit. Before, 
therefore, the Russian Ambassador could return to Vienna 
it was probable that the time-limit would have expired. 

"On the very day when the ultimatum was delivered at 
Belgrade the French Ambassador called on Count Berchtold, 
and (says Sir M. de Bunsen) 'was not even informed that the 
Note was at that very moment being presented at Belgrade.' 
Nor was this all. At the moment when he was keeping the 
French Ambassador in the dark, Count Berchtold knew that 
the President of the French Republic and the President 
of the French Council could not 'reach France, on their 
return from Russia, for four or five days.' (Sir G. Buchanan's 
dispatch, dated July 24th.) 

"Sir Edward Grey saw that, if the situation was to be 
saved, the time-limit would have to be extended. For the 
reasons given, there were grave difficulties in the way of 
France and Russia intervening in time. Representations 
were therefore sought to be made in Berlin and Vienna. 
The Kaiser seems to have been away from home, and the 
German Foreign Minister was evidently not in the confidence 
of his Imperial master, and knew no more than the rest of 
the world of the Austrian ultimatum. (Sir H. Rumbold's 
dispatch, July 25th.) Worse than all, Count Berchtold, 
the Austrian Foreign Secretary, who should have been at his 
post in Vienna during those anxious forty-eight hours when 
the sands were running out, was away at Ischl on July 25th, 
and could not be approached. (Sir H. Rumbold, July 25th.) 

"Comment is unnecessary. On July 24th Sir G. Bu- 
chanan, writing to Sir E. Grey, said: 

" 'It looks as though Austria purposely chose this moment 
to present their ultimatum.' 

"Is it not clear that Sir G. Buchanan's suspicion was well- 
founded, and that Austria and Germany conspired together 
to place an intolerable affront on the Powers of the Triple 
Entente, and hoped by the low cunning which is sometimes 
dignified by the name of ' diplomacy ' to do so with the im- 
punity which they enjoyed in 1909?" 

Nevertheless, Russia at this very time not only 
continued its mobilization against Austria, but 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 147 

also simultaneously brought its troops into a state 
of preparedness for war against Germany. It is 
impossible that this could have been done without 
the order of the Czar. The conduct of the Russian 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, of the Chief of the 
General Staff, and of the War Minister was of a 
piece with this attitude of the ruler. They as- 
sured the German Ambassador and the German 
military attache upon their word of honor that 
troops were not being mobilized against Germany 
and that no attack upon Germany was planned. 
The fact, however, proved that the decision to 
make war upon Germany had already been reached 
at that time. 

The reason which impelled the Czar and his 
chief advisers to employ such base tactics with 
the help of their word of honor and appeals to 
the Supreme Being is plain. Russia requires a 
longer time for mobilization than Germany. In 
order to offset this advantage, to deceive Germany, 
and to win a few days' start, the Russian Govern- 
ment stooped to a course of conduct as to which 
there can be but one judgment among brave and 
upright opponents. No one knew better than 
the Czar the German Emperor's love of peace. 
This love of peace was reckoned upon in the whole 
despicable game. Fortunately the plan was per- 
ceived on the German side at the right tim.e. 
Advices received by Germany's representative 
in St. Petersburg concerning the actual Russian 
mobilization against Germany moved him to add 



148 The Real Truth About Germany 

to the report given upon the Russian word of 
honor a statement of his own conviction that an 
attempt was obviously being made to deceive 
him. We find also that the character of the Rus- 
sian operations had been rightly comprehended 
by so unimpeachable an organ as the English 
Daily Graphic of August ist which said: *'If the 
mobilization order is also carried through in the 
provinces bordering on Germany, the work of 
the preservers of peace is ended, for Germany will 
be compelled to answer with the mobilization of 
her armed forces. We confess that we are unable 
to understand this attitude of Russia in connection 
with the renewal of the negotiations with Austria." 

Germany, who had all along pooh-poohed the 
capacity of Russia to make an army which could 
match her own, suddenly became aware, in the 
spring of 1914, that within a couple of years 
Russia would have three to five millions more 
soldiers than Germany, and of excellent quality, 
that her field-artillery was already magnificent, 
and that by 1916 she would have a huge supply 
of a new siege-gun, which would superannuate 
any fortress. If Germany was to have the he- 
gemony of Europe, for which she had been plotting 
and arming since 1870, France must be smashed 
at once, and Russia scotched before she became 
invincible. A war could be forced over Servia, 
and if Russia would by any chance submit to 
another humiliation like that of 1909 (the Bosnia- 
Herzegovina seizure), Servia and Greece could be 
smashed up, to rob Russia of her prestige and 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 149 

future allies. The subjugation of Servia was 
to be followed by the seizure of Salonika. Ger- 
many was practically ready for war; Russia had 
few railways, and many of her forces were at vast 
distances, as it was believed. 

It soon became clear that Russia considered 
the integrity of Servia vital, and might be put into 
the scales with Austria. England, France, and the 
third member of the Triple Alliance, Italy, were 
sincerely anxious for peace. They imagined that 
the German Emperor would be as anxious, 
because he had striven so hard to keep the peace 
of Europe during the Balkan War. They did not 
know that the Balkan Wars had disappointed his 
calculations — that he would have been at a dis- 
advantage if the Triple Alliance had had to fight 
against the Triple Entente with his existing 
artillery, and with the Balkan League on the 
side of Russia. 

He would not join the three Western Powers 
in making representations to Austria; he repre- 
sented that he could do nothing, whereas, since 
Austria was merely acting as his catspaw, the one 
word "stop" would have been sufficient. He 
could have stopped it by holding up his little 
finger. He sent disingenuous telegrams to the 
Czar and King George. He told the Western 
Powers that the Austrian Ambassador was having 
perfectly friendly conversations with the Russian 
Foreign Office, and he went on making his prepa- 
rations for war with feverish haste, without 
formally mobilizing, having already, on the day 
that Austria's ultimatum expired, commenced 
wrecking the Stock Exchange of London and the 



I50 The Real Truth About Germany 

Paris Bourse (to which he had thoughtfully 
devoted the sums of four millions and two 
millions respectively), so that England and France 
might be too paralyzed financially to move. He 
knew that all the other Stock Exchanges except 
those which had been forewarned, would follow. 

The Czar, a simple, straightforward, God- 
fearing man, not easily moved, then took up the 
attitude which "Truth about Germany" de- 
nounces as unworthy of a gentleman upon a 
throne. He saw that Austria did not mean busi- 
ness unless the penalty was war, so he mobilized 
his army corps on the Austrian frontier. Ger- 
many felt cruelly injured by such behavior, and 
grew so restive that the Czar mobilized the army 
corps on her frontier also. Then came the double 
ultimatum. Russia was asked to give an under- 
taking within twelve hours that she would de- 
mobilize, and France was asked to reply within 
eighteen hours if war with Russia meant war with 
her. Russia in a bored and dignified way declined 
to give any answer. France said that she would 
do what suited her. And Germany declared war. 

It should be added in fairness to Russia that, 
after she had begun to mobilize, she was as 
sincerely desirous of peace as ever. She mobi- 
lized because she saw that she could not preserve 
peace with honor without mobilizing. She 
would either have had to fight unprepared or to 
accept another humiliation. 

It is customary among civilized nations that a 
formal declaration of war shall precede the begin- 
ning of hostilities, and all powers, with the excep- 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 151 

tion of some unimportant scattered states, have 
obligated themselves under international law to 
observe this custom. Neither Russia nor France 
has observed this obligation. Without a declara- 
tion of war, Russian troops crossed the German 
border, opened fire on German troops, and at- 
tempted to dynamite bridges and buildings. In 
like manner, v/ithout a declaration of war, French 
aviators appeared above unfortified cities in 
South Germany, and sought, by throwing bombs, 
to destroy the railways. French detachments 
crossed the German border and occupied German 
villages. French aviators flew across neutral 
Holland and the then neutral Belgium to carry 
out warlike plans against the lower Rhine district 
of Germany. A considerable number of French 
ofiicers, disguised in German imiforms, tried to 
cross the Dutch-German frontier in an automobile 
in order to destroy institutions in German territory. 

In this paragraph the Germans accurately 
describe their own violations of French and 
Russian territory and divide them impartially 
between the Russians and the French. Attempt- 
ing surprises in uniforms taken from the dead or 
from prisoners is a specialty in German tactics. 
By this means and by bringing up quick-firing 
guns in Red Cross wagons and by a judicious 
abuse of the white flag (see page 134), they have 
treacherously inflicted much damage on a gener- 
ous and sporting enemy. Whatever either side 
did before the formal declaration of war, no 



152 The Real Truth About Germany 

important results were achieved. The French 
certainly cannot be accused of invading Ger- 
many before the declaration, because, to avoid 
collisions, they withdrew all their men ten kilo- 
meters from the frontier, except where there was 
any position to be held, and then they were kept 
in the position. 

It is plain that both France and Russia desired 
to compel Germany to make the first step in 
declaring war, so that the appearance of having 
broken the peace might, in the eyes of the world, 
rest upon Germany. The Russian government 
even attempted to disseminate through a foreign 
news agency the report that Germany had declared 
war on Russia, and it refused, contrary to the 
usage among civilized nations, to permit to be 
telegraphed the report of the German Ambas- 
sador that Russia had rejected the final German 
note concerning war and peace. 

This is exactly on a par with the German re- 
fusal of the British Ambassador's telegram under 
similar circumstances. 

Germany, for its part, in the hope that peace 
might yet be maintained, subjected itself to the 
great disadvantage of delaying its mobilization 
in the first decisive days in the face of the meas- 
ures of its probable enemy. When, however, the 
German Emperor realized that peace was no longer 
possible, he declared war against France and 
Russia honorably, before the beginning of hos- 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 153 

tilities, thus bringing into contrast the moral 
courage to assume the responsibiHty for the begin- 
ning of the conflict as against the moral cowardice 
of both opponents, whose fear of public opinion 
was such that they did not dare openly to admit 
their intentions to attack Germany. 

Far from France and Russia desiring to compel 
Germany to make the first step, so that the blame 
of breaking the peace might rest on Germany, 
they did not desire to have war at all. But Ger- 
many declared war because she had made up her 
mind to do so unless she obtained what she 
wanted. Russia's refusal to allow the report of 
the German Ambassador to be telegraphed was 
a purely technical grievance. 

As Germany was ready for war before she 
allowed the crisis to commence, she could allow 
the enemy to mobilize without injuring herself. 
I cannot understand why the writer of this book 
makes such a fal-lal about Germany having the 
courage to declare war against France and Russia 
honorably, while they lacked the moral courage 
to take the responsibility of beginning and ma- 
neuvered for the blame of it to fall upon her. The 
book attributes it to their fear of public opinion, 
a likely enough reason if they were trying to 
maneuver her into making a declaration. But 
why should they? It was clear enough that the 
war was her doing. England, the most pacific of 
them all, was the only country to declare war. 

Germany, moreover, cared in a humane and 
proper manner at the outbreak of the war for 



154 The Real Truth About Germany 

those non-combatant subjects of hostile states — 
traveling salesmen, travelers for pleasure, patients 
in health resorts, etc. — who happened to be in the 
country at the time. In isolated cases, where 
the excitement of the public grew disquieting, 
the authorities immediately intervened to protect 
persons menaced. In Russia, however, in France, 
and especially in Belgium the opposite of decency 
and humanity prevailed. Instead of referring 
feelings of national antipathy and of national 
conflicting interests to the decision of the battle- 
field, the French mishandled in the most brutal 
manner the German population and German 
travelers in Paris and other cities, who neither 
could nor wished to defend themselves, and who 
desired solely to leave the hostile country at once. 
The mob threatened and mishandled Germans in 
the streets, in the railway stations, and in the 
trains, and the authorities permitted it. 

However the Germans may have behaved to 
the ordinary non-combatant subjects of hostile 
states, such as commercial travelers, tourists, and 
invalids, it is certain that they behaved much 
worse to Ambassadors and Consuls than their 
opponents. Reuter's telegram to " The Times " 
about the departure of the Russian Ambassador 
is an example, and a foreign Consul at Danzig 
has yet worse to tell; and official reports show 
that the ill-treatment of Russians in Germany 
was quite as bad as anything done to Germans 
anywhere. 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 155 

The occurrences in Belgium are infamous beyond 
all description. Germany would have exposed 
itself to the danger of a military defeat if it had 
still respected the neutrality of Belgium after it 
had been announced that strong French detach- 
ments stood ready to march through that country 
against the advancing German army. The Bel. 
gian Government was assured that its interests 
would be conscientiously guarded if it would per- 
mit the German army to march through its 
territory. In answer to this assurance was a 
declaration of war. In making this declaration 
it acted perhaps not wisely, but unquestionably 
within its formal rights. It was, however, not 
right, but, on the contrary, a disgraceful breach 
of right, that the eyes of wounded German soldiers 
in Belgium were gouged out, and their ears and 
noses cut off; that surgeons and persons carrying 
the wounded were shot at from houses. 

It is frankly impossible to understand what the 
writer meant this paragraph to prove. What was 
infamous? — that there were strong French de- 
tachments ready to march through the country 
against the Germans may be disproved by the 
fact that when the Germans had violated Belgian 
territory and the Belgians needed and besought 
the help of France as soon as ever they could get 
it, there were few French troops ready to advance 
into Belgium, and the French had no plans what- 
ever for utilizing Belgian defenses to delay the 
German advances. 



156 The Real Truth About Germany 

The assurances to Belgium that all her interests 
would be " conscientiously guarded " if she 
would break her treaty and allow the German 
army to pass through Belgium — offered by one of 
the Powers which had guaranteed her treaty — 
may be characterized as one of the most black- 
guardly political suggestions in history. 

The alleged outrages on the wounded and 
the doctors are German outrages attributed to 
Belgians. 



Private dwellings of Germans in Antwerp were 
plundered, German women were dragged naked 
through the streets by the mob and shot to death 
before the eyes of the police and the militia. 
Captains of captured German ships in Antwerp 
were told that the authorities could not guarantee 
their lives. German tourists were robbed of their 
baggage, insulted, and mishandled, sick persons 
were driven from the German hospital, children 
were thrown from the windows "of German homes 
into the streets and their limbs were broken. 
Trustworthy reports of all these occurrences, from 
respectable and responsible men, are at hand. 
We perceive with the deepest indignation that 
the cruelties of the Congo have been outdone by 
the motherland. When it comes to pass that in 
time of war among nations the laws of humanity 
respecting the helpless and the unarmed, the 
women and children, are no longer observed, the 
world is reverting to barbarism. 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 157 

The Germans are here attributing to the Bel- 
gians in Antwerp the ordinary German procedure. 

Even in war times, humanity and honor should 
still remain the distinguishing marks of civilization. 

The English believed that "even in war times, 
humanity and honor " would have received more 
consideration from the people who talked so much 
about culture and their civilizing mission. 

That French and Russians, in their endeavors 
to spy upon Germany and destroy her institutions, 
should disguise themselves in German uniforms is 
a sorry testimony to the sense of honor possessed 
by our opponents. He v^ho ventures to conduct 
espionage in a hostile land or secretly to plant 
bombs, realizes that he risks the penalty of death, 
whether he be a civilian or a member of the army. 
Up to the present, however, it has not been cus- 
tomary to use a uniform, which should be respected 
even by the enemy, to lessen the personal risk of 
the spy and to facilitate his imdertaking. 

It is inconceivable that the great Germans who 
allowed their name to be attached to this book 
could have seen its contents. The whole history 
of the war teems with the treacherous use of the 
uniforms of their enemies by Germans — officers 
as well as privates. At its very opening a motor- 
load of Germans disguised as English officers 
made a dash into Liege to capture or kill General 
Leman, and the Hon. Archer Windsor-Clivej 



158 The Real Truth About Germany 

the well-known cricketer, who has died of his 
wounds, was shot at close quarters by a German 
officer dressed in an English military cloak whom 
he was in the act of saluting. The writer of the 
paragraph probably meant to delude Americans 
with academical condemnations. 

For a number of years there have been increas- 
ing indications that France, Russia, and England 
were systematically spying upon the military 
institutions of Germany. In the eight years from 
1906 to 1913, 113 persons were found guilty of 
attempted or accomplished espionage of a grave 
nature. The methods employed by these spies 
included theft, attacks upon military posts, and 
the employment of German officers' uniforms as 
disguises. The court proceedings threw a clear 
light upon the organization and operations of es- 
pionage in Germany. This espionage was directed 
from central points in foreign countries, often in 
the small neighboring neutral states. Repeatedly 
it appeared that the foreign embassies and con- 
sulates in Germany assisted in this work; it was 
also discovered that Russia, France, and England 
were exchanging reports which they had received 
concerning Germany's means of defense. 

It is to be understood from this paragraph that 
Germany totally disapproves of the use of spies, 
and has never had any in her employ. In Ger- 
many itself, in eight years only, one hundred and 
thirteen foreigners were found guilty of attempted 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies 159 

or accomplished espionage of a grave nature. 
Considering German methods, it may be taken 
for granted that at least a hundred of them were 
innocent. The offenses included theft, and at- 
tacks on military posts, and using German officers' 
uniforms as disguises. If one Englishman was 
caught in a German uniform during those eight 
years, he must have been quietly murdered, for 
it never came into the papers, which devoted 
volumes to the two officers who were caught and 
imprisoned for years on a discredited scoundreFs 
false accusation that they had been making ob- 
servations of German coast defenses. What spies 
there were in Germany, for linguistic reasons, 
must have been Russians, or Germans in the pay 
of their enemies. These may have included a 
certain number of Alsatians and Lorrainers who 
wished to be French subjects. But they would be 
peculiarly liable to suspicion. On the other hand, 
foreign countries have swarmed with German 
spies, who, if they had been hunted out with Ger- 
man thoroughness, would have made an army 
corps. 

This espionage system was supported with 
large funds. It endeavored whenever possible to 
seduce military persons and officials to betray 
their country, and, when this was not possible, 
it devoted its attention to doubtful characters of 
every sort. It began its work with petty requests 
of a harmless appearance, followed these with in- 
ducements to violations of duty, and then pro- 
ceeded with threats of exposure to compel its 



i6o The Real Truth About Germany 

victims to betray their country further. Exact 
instructions, complete in the minutest detail, 
were given to the spies for the carrying on of their 
work; they were equipped with photographic 
apparatus, with skeleton keys, forged passes, 
etc. ; they received fixed monthly salaries, especial 
bonuses for valuable information, and high rewards 
for especially secret matters, such as army orders, 
descriptions of weapons, and plans of fortifications. 
Principal attention was paid to our boundaries, 
railroads, bridges, and important buildings on 
lines of traffic, which were spied upon by specially 
trained men. With the reports of these spies as 
their basis, our opponents have carefully planned 
the destruction of the important German lines of 
communication . 



It is really very amusing to have the instruc- 
tions, equipment, and " modus operandi " of the 
German spy system divulged to the world by the 
German authorities in the spirited sketch supplied 
by this paragraph of the machinations of foreign 
governments. That the net was a wide one we 
know from the instance of the Liverpool boy clerk, 
whose attention was drawn to the fact that his 
modest earnings could be supplemented by easy 
and well-paid employment. He wrote to the 
German Foreign Office, or something equally 
high-sounding, about it, and was given instruc- 
tions which led to his examining the forts, chiefly 
shoddy affairs used for the training of Territorials 
round Liverpool. The German War Office com- 



The Attitude of Germany's Enemies i6i 

plained that his reports were not of much techni- 
cal value, and the liberal pay he received for them 
all told was two pounds, sent in English Postal 
Orders. This came out when he was tried and 
sentenced in a British law court a few months ago. 

The extraordinary watchfulness of the German 
military officials immediately before the declara- 
tion of war and since then has been able to render 
futile the whole system of foreign attempts against 
our means of communication in every single in- 
stance, but a great number of such attempts have 
been made. All these things prove beyond doubt 
that a war against Germany has long been planned 
by our opponents. 

The mention of the extraordinary watchfulness 
which rendered futile the whole system of foreign 
attempts against German means of communi- 
cation just before the war — attempts of which 
ninety-nine per cent, could only have existed in 
German nerve attacks or the fiction in which their 
OflScial Press delights — is only an introduction to 
the statement that " all these things prove be- 
yond doubt that the war against Germany has 
long been planned by our opponents." 



II 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER VIII 

LIES NAILED TO THE COUNTER 
From Daily Mail correspondent: 

"New York, Monday, September 7th. 

"The Press of the United States to-day calmly and emphatic- 
ally rejects the appeal for the sympathy of this nation made by 
the leading savants, authors, statesmen, financiers, and industrial 
magnates of Germany in the form of a book giving the Kaiser's 
case under the title "The Truth About Germany. " 

"In dealing with this appeal the New York Times observes: 
*No voice or pen, however eloquent or gifted, can convince an 
impartial world of the justice of Germany's cause or change the 
rooted belief of right-thinking men that she is battling for ends 
that, if attained, would retard, rather than advance, the cause of 
civilization and make the peace, prosperity, and happiness of the 
nations less secure. 

" 'These men of Germany ask us to give no heed to the lies of 
their enemies. In this land of enlightenment public opinion does 
not take form on anybody's lies. We take no count of perversions 
sent out from London or Paris. We have sought truth in its 
undefiled sources in the British White Paper and in the memoran- 
dum of the German Foreign Office, in the observed and acknowl- 
edged policies of the combatant nations, and in the utterances of 
their men of authority. The princes and professors who pay us 
the compliment of this appeal to our candid judgment will not 
impeach the testimony of their Foreign Office. 

" 'If there was suspension of judgment in the first weeks of the 
war, all doubt vanished and full conviction came when the official 
documents and records were published. The American people 
there read of the untiring efforts of Sir Edward Grey to reach a 
peaceful adjustment through a conference of the Powers, of his 

162 



Foreword to Chapter VIII 163 

appeals, to which France, Russia, and Italy gave an immediate 
assenting response and which Germany alone met with evasion, 
excuse, disfavor, and refusal. 

" 'From the German memorandum they learn that the Kaiser's 
Government had from the first sustained and encouraged Austria 
in a policy of war, and had denied the rights of any other Power 
to stand between her and the Servian objects of her wrath. It is 
wholly futile, it is an aftront to our intelligence for these German 
suppliants for our favor to tell us now that Russia and England 
brought on the war, that Germany did not choose the path of 
blood, that the sword was forced into the hands of the German 
Emperor; nor can our favor or sympathy be won by misrepre- 
senting the motives of England, France, and Russia. 

" 'In the face of Sir Edward Grey's labors for peace, why tell 
us that England "encouraged this war" because she was deter- 
mined to check the com.mercial growth of Germany? Why tell 
us that the war was "provoked by Russia" because of an out- 
rageous desire for revenge? 

" 'These German advocates talk as though we had just arrived 
from the moon. We are unmoved by their picture of the Slav 
peril. Why is it that Germany fears the Slav? England is not 
afraid; France has no fear; Italy, Belgium, and Holland are all 
undisturbed. We should like to see a satisfactory answer to the 
question why, when all the rest of Europe is calm, Germany stands 
in terror of the Slav? 

'"The authors of this book make a wretched defense of Ger- 
many's crime against international morality and her invasion of 
neutral Belgium. "In our place the Government of the United 
States would not have acted differently. " Speak for yourselves, 
gentlemen. Our recent repeal of a statute that was by a great 
part of our people deemed to be in conflict with one of our treaties 
speaks for us. ' 

"The article refers to the disgust with which the inhabitants of 
the United States listen to the Kaiser's ' blasphemous invocations 
to Divine favor upon his bloody enterprises' and concludes: 
* These gentlemen of Germany plead in vain. We can give them 
no help. To quote their own words in a truer sense than their 
own, "The country of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln 
places itself upon the side of a just cause and one worthy of 
humanity's blessing. " '" 



CHAPTER VIII 

LIES ABOUT GERMANY 

THE MACHINATIONS OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE TO 

PUT GERMANY IN THE WRONG — LIES 

ON ALL SIDES. 

GERMANY has now not only to battle against 
a world in arms but it must also defend 
itself against lies and slanders which have been 
piled up around it like a hostile rampart. There 
is no cable at our disposal. England has either 
cut the cables, or is in possession of them. No 
German description of what has actually occurred 
can be sent by telegraph; the wires are carrying 
into the world only the distortions of our enemies. 
Germany is shut off as with a hedge from the 
outside world, and the world is supplied solely 
with news given out by our enemies. This lan- 
guage is strictly true; for the boldest, nay, the 
most impudent imagination would be unable to 
invent anything to exceed the false and absurd 
reports already printed by foreign newspapers. 
In view of what we have experienced during this 
first week of the war, we can already calmly assert 
that when the editors of foreign newspapers come 

164 



Lies About Germany 165 

later to compare their daily news of this week with 
the actual occurrences as testified to by authentic 
history they will all open their eyes in astonish- 
ment and anger over all the lies which the countries 
hostile to Germany have sent over the cables to 
bamboozle the whole world. 

This German complaint to America about lies 
reminds me of the famous picture in the Vatican 
of Alexander VI., the most wicked of all the 
Popes, with his eyes fixed on a portrayal of the 
Resurrection. One would have thought it a 
painful subject for him. The Germans cannot 
even be true to themselves, for while their ac- 
credited Ambassador in Washington, " Count 
John Bernstorff," has been giving to the United 
States the correct version of everything that has 
happened, this chapter in this book tells us on the 
authority of Prince Biilow, Ex-Chancellor, Field- 
Marshal von der Goltz, and the rest of them, 
heads of all the greatest institutions in Germany, 
that " no German description of what has actu- 
ally occurred can be sent by telegraph. . . . 
Germany is shut off as with a hedge from the 
outside world.'' Poor " Count John Bernstorff," 
lying so bravely! Has he found out yet that 
Germany's National Committee has announced 
to the civilized world that it is impossible for him 
to have received any German description of what 
has actually occurred? 

One wonders how the committee dares to say 
that " the most impudent imagination would be 
unable to invent anything to exceed the false and 



1 66 The Real Truth About Germany 

absurd reports already printed by foreign news- 
papers." The German official reports dissemi- 
nated by their own wireless, beggar the ordinary 
newspaper imagination. They have reached such 
a pitch that even the newspapers of Holland — 
poor little Holland ! which has to act as a sort of 
office for German communications with the out- 
side world — has no newspaper which will print 
them. The Germans have had to start a Dutch 
newspaper of their own for the purpose. 

GERMAN PAPER TO BE STARTED IN HOLLAND 

From the Globe: 

"The Hague, September 14th. 

"A new paper, De Toesdend, which is financed in Ger- 
many, is now circulated at The Hague for the dissemina- 
tion of German news in the Dutch language. 

"The Dutch papers have refused to be influenced by 
German agents." — Exchange Special. 

And the Press of the rest of the world, notably 
that of Italy, the sleeping partner in the Triple 
Alliance, and the United States, for which this 
feeding-bottle book was prepared, ladles derision 
on to the official German reports, which, if they 
serve any use at all, serve to keep the German 
public in the dark about what their Government 
does not wish them to know. Take, for instance, 
the statement that there are two hundred and 
twenty thousand French, English, Russian, and 
Belgian prisoners in Germany, not including the 
forty thousand prisoners captured in Maubeuge, 
or the statement issued just before the middle of 
September that the total German losses in the 
war amount to four thousand killed and under 



Lies About Germany 167 

twenty thousand wounded — this after a couple of 
million men had been attacking in close formation 
for two or three weeks ; this after the carnage at 
Luneville, where the killed were estimated at 
twenty-five thousand ! The same official wireless 
agency sent the news to Grand Canary, faithfully 
recorded in its newspaper, which has arrived in 
London, that at the battle of Heligoland the Ger- 
mans lost five small cruisers, but the English 
seven large battle-cruisers. These items deserve 
mention in any list of war-lies. 

It may be impossible to control newspapers, 
even when you have a Hammann and a special 
bureau for the purpose, devoted entirely to se- 
curing that nothing which is not absolutely true 
shall find its way into print. But the official 
reports of War Offices stand on a different footing, 
and until the German authorities imitate the 
English and Russian authorities in issuing no 
reports until they are absolutely certain of their 
truth, in checking every attempt to exaggerate, 
in chronicling disasters as faithfully as victories, 
it is no good sending complaints to America of 
lies about Germany. It is unkind of Munich to 
have had riots demanding the truth from the 
Government. 

Much of all this has already become ridiculous; 
we must laugh over it despite the solemnity of the 
crisis in which we are living — for example, the 
bestowal of the cross of the Legion of Honor upon 
the city of Liege by the French President because 
it victoriously repulsed the attack of the Germans. 



i68 The Real Truth About Germany 

Witness, too, the telegrams of congratulation sent 
by the King of England and the Czar of Russia 
to the Belgian King upon the victory of Liege! 
The joy over such ''German defeats" will prove 
just as brief as the jubilation over such ** Belgian 
victories." Such lies have short legs, and the 
truth will in any case soon overtake them. 

Undoubtedly the confusion between Liege and 
its forts betrayed President Poincare into a posi- 
tion which must have seemed supremely ridicu- 
lous to Geritnan eyes. But it was no funnier than 
the " Goeben " and the " Breslau " steaming out 
of Messina with bands playing and colors flying 
and protestations of death or victory when they 
were only going to run away to the Dardanelles 
and be sold like unredeemed pawnbrokers' 
pledges to the Turks. These things will happen 
unless you are as careful as the British Official 
Press Bureau. 

But there are other lies of a more serious char- 
acter and of more dangerous import — all such as 
misrepresent Germany's attitude and defame 
German character. Such defamation is designed 
to disturb old friendships and transform them 
into bitter estrangement; such defamation can 
also attain its hostile purpose wherever people do 
not say daily to themselves: "It is an enemy that 
reports such things about Germany ; let us be wise 
and suspend our judgment till we know actual 
results, till we know what is surely the truth. " 



Lies About Germany 169 

There are two classes of Germans, one con- 
sisting of ordinary kindly human beings, con- 
cerned with the usual interests of civilized beings, 
and distinguished by ability in music, scholarship, 
science, or art, more frequently, perhaps, than 
individuals in other nations. The other class is 
concerned with Germany's mission to subdue the 
world by " hacking its way through " — the people 
to whom von Bernhardi's book is Gospel. This 
class lays Germany's attitude open to misrepre- 
sentation and her character to defamation, and a 
sufficiently strong indictment can be laid against 
her without either one or the other. 

Let us select several facts as examples and as 
evidence — ^facts connected with the preparation 
for this war, as well as with the conduct of it thus 
far. 

All the cables controlled by the English-French- 
Russian coalition disseminate the lie about the 
ostensibly "preventive war" that German}^ wished 
and prepared for. The German ''White Book" 
prints documents proving THE WHITE PURITY 
OF THE GERMAN CONSCIENCE as repre- 
sented by Kaiser, Chancellor, and people. It 
reveals also the profound grief of the German 
Kaiser over the sly and insidious perfidy of the 
Czar, toward whom he steadily maintained Ger- 
man fidelity even in hours of grave danger. What 
Russia did was more than a mere attack, it was a 
treacherous assault. The following facts prove 
this: The German mobilization was ordered on 



170 The Real Truth About Germany 

August 1st, whereas Russia began to mobilize 
fully four weeks earlier, or about the beginning of 
July. Papers found on several Russian harvest- 
laborers arrested in the district of Konitz show 
that the Russian military authorities had already 
hy July 1st — i. e., immediately after the tragedy 
at Sarajevo — sent to the leaders of these men 
mustering-in orders, which were to be distributed 
immediately after a further word should be given. 
These confiscated papers prove that Russia hoped 
to be able to mobilize against Austria before 
Germany could get official information of Russia's 
measures. The Russian authorities purposely 
avoided the usual course of sending these orders 
through the Russian consuls, and they assigned 
** military exercises" as the object of this call to 
the colors. 

It is quite certain that Germany meant to go 
to war this summer, and made Austria send the 
ultimatum to Servia with that object. Mobili- 
zation papers to Germans in distant parts of the 
world prove this. If Russia did send mustering- 
in orders to her harvest-laborers in Germany on 
July ist, it does not prove that any military 
measures were intended. It was merely a proper 
precaution growing out of the murder of the Arch- 
duke Francis Ferdinand, to get them out of a 
hostile country (where they were in large num- 
bers) in case of trouble. To say that German 
mobilization was ordered on August ist, whereas 
Russian mobilization began four weeks earlier, 



Lies About Germany 171 

is reversing the order of things. Germany was 
as good as mobilized before she inspired Austria 
to send the ultimatum, though her formal mobili- 
zation was not announced till the war was break- 
ing out. Russia only mobilized when it became 
apparent that Germany and Austria meant to try 
and squeeze her. On July 31st British steamers 
were forcibly detained at Hamburg and not 
allowed to proceed after that day. 

July 25th: Military exercises at Krasnoye-Selo 
were suddenly broken off, and the troops returned 
at once to their garrison. The maneuvers had 
been called off. The military cadets were ad- 
vanced at once to officers instead of waiting, as 
usual, till autumn. 

These two moves were in consequence of 
Austria^s ultimatum to Servia, and there is no 
proof that the further word was given. It is in- 
teresting to find that these were military ex- 
ercises: so the ostensible reason was probably 
the true one. 

July 26th: All ships and boats are forbidden to 
sail in the waters between Helsingfors and York- 
kele; and navigation between Sweden and Finland 
is closed. 

July 28th: Partial mobilization; 16 army corps 
to be increased to the strength of 32 corps. On 
the same day the Czar begs for friendly mediation, 
and on the same day the Russian Minister of 



172 The Real Truth About Germany 

Foreign Affairs and the Russian Minister of War 
give the German mih'tary attache, upon their own 
initiative, their solemn word of honor that no 
mobiHzation has taken place. 

July 26th: Considering the fondness the 
Germans have shown for mines, the precaution 
was not unnecessary. July 28th: There was no 
reason why the Czar should not have been quite 
honest in his desire for peace while he was taking 
a precaution against surprise from a nation whose 
von Bernhardis have always urged it to take every 
advantage it could to neutralize the superior 
strength of an enemy by "slimness." The 
German jingoes, when they drank "to the day** 
— meaning the day on which the German fleet was 
to meet the English — always meant to use every 
device they could to prevent it being a square 
stand-up fight between the two fleets. The 
English fleet was to be weakened first with every 
form of insidious attack. The Russian is no fool; 
he may be just as good as the German in avoiding 
the technical forms of mobilization while he se- 
cures most of its effects. And, after all, this 
quibbling about the technicalities of mobilization 
is not vital. It is a mere form of diplomacy. 
The vital point at issue among all these recrimina- 
tions was: the sincerity of the desire for peace. 
Russia sincerely desired peace, but did not 
mean to be caught napping. Germany meant to 
slap Russia in the face if she would not fight. 
These two central facts make all the recrimina- 
tions about mobilization superfluous. 



Lies About Germany 173 

July 30th : The second and third Russian cavalry 
divisions appear on the German frontier between 
Wirballen and Augustov. The Czar issues a 
ukase calling to the colors the reserves in 23 entire 
governments and in 80 districts of other govern- 
ments; also the naval reserves in 64 districts, or 
12 Russian and one Finnish government; also the 
Cossacks on furlough in a number of districts; 
also the necessary reserve officers, physicians, 
horses, and wagons. 

July 31st: General mobilization of the whole 
Russian army and navy. The German steamer 
Eitel Friedrich, which keeps up a regular service 
between Stettin and St. Petersburg, is stopped 
by a Russian torpedo-boat and brought into Reval, 
where the crew were made prisoners. The Rus- 
sians blow up the railway bridge on Austrian 
territory between Szozakowa and Granica. 

July 30th and 31st: As the bellicose intentions 
of Germany became more and more obvious, the 
Czar made extensive preparations on the first 
of these two days, and ordered a general mobili- 
zation of his army and navy on the second. It 
was necessary to turn the tables on Germany, 
and let her know what Austria's persisting in her 
course meant. On July 31st the Czar sent the 
following telegram to the Emperor : 

" I thank thee from my heart for the mediation, 
which leaves a gleam of hope that even now all 
may end peacefully. It is technically impossible 
to discontinue our military operations, which are 



174 The Real Truth About Germany 

rendered necessary by Austria's mobilization. 

We are far from wishing for war, and so long as 

the negotiations with Austria regarding Servia 

continue, my troops will not undertake any 

provocative action. I give thee my word upon it. 

I trust with all my strength in God's grace, and I 

hope for the success of thy mediation in Vienna, 

and for the welfare of our countries and the peace 

of Europe. 

" Thy most devoted, 

" NICHOLAS." 

The Czar makes no attempt here to conceal his 
military operations. It was indisputable that 
Austria had already given the orders to mobilize 
against Russia. The Kaiser replied with a long 
telegram, which ended up with a distinct threat. 

"In answer to thy appeal to my friendship and 
thy prayer for my help I undertook mediatory 
action between the Austria-Hungarian Govern- 
ment and thine. While this action was in progress 
thy troops were mobilizing against my ally, 
Austria-Hungary, in consequence of which, as I 
have already informed thee, my mediation was 
rendered nearly illusory. Nevertheless, I have 
continued it. 

"Now, however, I receive trustworthy news of 
your serious preparations for war even on my 
eastern frontier. The responsibility for the- safety 
of my kingdom compels me to take definite re- 
taliatory measures. My efforts to maintain the 
peace of the world have now reached their utmost 
possible limit. 

"It will not be I who am responsible for the 



Lies About Germany 175 

calamity which threatens the whole civilized 
world. Even at this moment it lies in thy power 
to avert it. Nobody threatens the honor and 
power of Russia, which could well have waited 
for the result of my mediation. The friendship 
which I have inherited from my grandfather on 
his death-bed for thee and thy kingdom has 
always been holy to me. I have remained true to 
Russia whenever she has been in sore straits, and 
especially during her last war. The peace of 
Europe can still be maintained by thee if Russia 
decides to cease her military measures, which 
threaten Germany and Austria-Hungary." 

On July 31st the German Chancellor tele- 
graphed to the German Ambassador at St. Pe- 
tersburg: "Mobilization, however, must follow 
unless Russia ceases within twelve hours all 
warlike measures against us and Austria-Hun- 
gary, and gives us definite assurance thereof." 
And on August ist the Chancellor telegraphed 
to his Ambassador that unless the Russian Gov- 
ernment had given a satisfactory answer, he 
was at five o'clock to hand to it a declaration 
which culminated in the following words: "His 
Majesty the Emperor, my august Sovereign, in the 
name of the Empire, takes up the defiance and 
considers himself in a state of war against Russia." 

The Chancellor had on July 31st wired to his 
Ambassador at Paris: "Mobilization inevitably 
means war. Kindly ask the French Government 
whether it will remain neutral in a Russian-Ger- 
man war. Answer must come within eighteen 
hours." 



176 The Real Truth About Germany 

Russia refused ta answer, and the French 
Premier declared that "France would do that 
which might be required of her by her interests." 

The German Ambassador at St. Petersburg 
demanded his passports at once. But the Ger- 
man Ambassador at Paris took no overt action, 
for some tortuous reason, which was doubtless 
intimately connected with military movements. 

Night of August 1st: Russian patrols attack 
the German railway bridge near Eichenried and 
try to surprise the German railway station at 
Miloslaw. A Russian column crosses the German 
frontier at Schwidden, and two squadrons of 
Cossacks ride against Johannisburg. 

August 1st: (at last) Germany's mobilization. 

And France? 

July 27th: The Fourteenth Army Corps breaks 
off its maneuvers. 

July 31st: General mobilization. 

August 2d: French troops attack German fron- 
tier posts, cross the frontier and occupy German 
towns. Bomb-throwing aviators come into Baden 
and Bavaria; also, after violating Belgium's neu- 
trality by crossing Belgian territory, they enter 
the Rhine Province and try to destroy bridges. 

Only after all this is the German Ambassador 
at Paris instructed to demand his passports. 

The ingenuousness of the writer of this German 
apologia in imagining that American readers 
would be simple enough to be worked into a state 
of indignation by his tabulation of a few minute 



Lies About Germany 177 

and utterly unproved and unlikely frontier inci- 
dents in Russia following the declaration of war, 
and twaddle about French aviators violating 
neutrality by flying over Belgian territory follow- 
ing France^s rejection of the German ultimatum, 
leads up to the hypocritical protest: "Only after 
all this is the German Ambassador at Paris in- 
structed to demand his passports." 

The French suspected him of trying to do a 
little espionage, so long was he in removing his 
unwelcome presence. 

And England? 

In London war must already have been decided 
upon by July 31st; the English Admiralty had 
even before that date advised Lloyd's against 
insuring German ships. On the same day the 
German Government gave emphatic support in 
Vienna to the English mediatory proposal of Sir 
Edward Grey. But the entire English fleet had 
already been assembled. 

To say that England had decided upon war by 
July 31st is one of the crudest absurdities in the 
book. The answers to the German ultimatum to 
France and Russia were not given until August 
I St, and as there was no question of Germany's 
declaring war on Great Britain, she was not con- 
cerned until a state of war existed between her 
allies and Germany. That the Admiralty should 
warn Lloyd's not to insure German ships — the 
ships of a nation on the verge of war — was not 
very extraordinary. The statement that the Ger« 
man Government gave emphatic support in Vi- 
12 



178 The Real Truth About Germany 

enna to the English mediatory proposal on the 
same day would be called an undiplomatic name 
by Americans, knowing as they did long before 
this wonderful book was published that Austria 
got up the whole business to oblige Germany. 
The entire English fleet had undoubtedly been 
assembled, but America knows just as well as 
Germany that it was assembled for the monster 
review of their ships which the English are in 
the habit of holding every July. 

It may be mere coincidence that England has 
been assembling her entire fleet for review every 
year at the time laid down by the German War 
Office as the proper moment for invading an 
enemy^s country, because the maximum amount 
of damage can be done to its harvests. On July 
31st, as I have said, British ships were already 
detained in Hamburg. 

Of course, English public opinion was and still 
is divided. As late as August the Daily Graphic 
wrote in reference to the Russian mobilization 
order: ''Will the Russian order also be carried 
out in the provinces on the German frontier? 
If so, then the labor of the peace-preservers is at 
an end, for Germany is compelled to answer with 
the mobilization of its armed forces. We confess 
that we are not able to understand this attitude 
of Russia, in view of the resumption of negotiations 
at Vienna." 

And a leaflet distributed in the streets of London 
said that *'a war for Russia is a war against 
civilization." 



Lies About Germany 179 

As I have said, outside the Ostrich Press, the 
"Daily Graphic" was the only paper which 
questioned the wisdom of Russia in being pre- 
pared for war if she was going to exercise any 
restraining influence over Austria and Germany. 
Russia, being, according to German complaints, 
well served by spies, was probably aware through- 
out the negotiations that Germany had instigated 
Austria's move, and under the form of an entreaty 
to intervene was urging the Kaiser to reflect 
before he plunged Europe into war. That opinion 
in England is not divided has been amply proved 
by the National Liberal Club's inviting the Con- 
stitutional Club to join it in promoting a great 
recruiting meeting (in which the Labor Party 
took a prominent part) and by the patriotic 
speeches of the Irish leaders, and by thousands 
of Irish Nationalists singing " God Save the 
King " on a football ground at Belfast on Satur- 
day, September 19th, There is nothing to prove 
that the leaflet mentioned in this paragraph was 
not paid for by Germany. Hammann's Press Bu- 
reau was equal to efforts quite as brilliant as this. 

A telegram from the British Ambassador at St. 
Petersburg, dated August i, 1914, establishes the 
fact that Germany and Austria could have been 
under no disillusion as to the result of Austria's 
persisting. "He (M. Sazanof) went on to say 
that during the Balkan crisis he had made it clear 
to the Austrian Government that war with Russia 
must inevitably follow an Austrian attack on 
Servia. It was clear that Austrian domination of 
Servia was as intolerable for Russia as the de- 
pendence of the Netherlands on Germany would 



i8o The Real Truth About Germany 

be to Great Britain. It was, in fact, for Russia a 
question of life and death. The policy of Austria 
had throughout been both tortuous and immoral, 
and she thought that she could treat Russia with 
defiance, secure in the support of her German 
ally. Similarly the policy of Germany had been 
an equivocal and double-faced policy, and it 
mattered little whether the German Government 
knew or did not know the terms of the Austrian 
ultimatum ; what mattered was that her interven- 
tion with the Austrian Government had been 
postponed until the moment had passed when its 
influence would have been felt." 

So much as to the preparations for the wslt; and 
now we take up the conduct of the war itself. 

By glancing at the foreign press during this one 
week we have been able to collect the following 
specimen pieces of news: 

London: The British Admiralty reports that 
the British fleet had driven back the German fleet 
to the Dutch coast. 

There is not one word of truth in this. The 
Admiralty itself appears later to have recovered 
its senses — at least, it denied a Renter story about 
a "great English naval victory near the Dogger 
Bank." But the English manufactories of lies 
are already so actively at work that Members 
of Parliament have protested in the House itself 
against the ''lying reports of the English press." 

The British Admiralty report that the British 
fleet had driven back the German fleet to the 



Lies About Germany i8i 

Dutch coast may not have a word of truth in it — 
if it was ever issued. It is highly unlikely that 
the German fleet went near enough to them to be 
driven, and the Germans may have no difficulty 
in proving that their fleet had never left harbor. 
The British Admiralty has been most sober about 
operations in the North Sea ; it has preserved an 
almost absolute silence about them. 

Paris: From Paris the assertion was made and 
disseminated throughout the world that "the 
landing of English troops in Belgium; they were 
enthusiastically received by the population. The 
landing proceeded rapidly, and in the best order, 
as the agreement between the two General Staffs 
guaranteed the perfect carrying-out of the dis- 
embarkment plans." 

Not a single word of this is true. At present 
not one English soldier has been landed. 

There was not a word in the English papers 
about the landing of English troops on the Con- 
tinent until they had been there for three days. 
The source of the information at Paris is not given, 
but it is the kind of rumor that any irresponsible 
French paper might have circulated. 

In a similar way the Baltic Sea has become the 
scene of invented ' * battles '* — of ' ' German defeats," 
of course: the Russian Baltic fleet sank a German 
war vessel in a battle that never occurred. 

In the English papers it was the German Baltic 
fleet which destroyed a large Russian ship in a 
battle that never occurred off the Aland Islands. 



1 82 The Real Truth About Germany 

And: "The Russian vanguard has crossed the 
German frontier without meeting any opposition." 
As a matter of fact, there is not a single Russian 
soldier on German soil. All inroads have been 
repulsed, and the German offensive has every- 
where been successful. 

If there was not a single Russian soldier on 
German soil when these lines were written, there 
are plenty now. 

A Dutch newspaper prints the following report 
from France: 

''Belfort: Many hundreds of Alsatians are join- 
ing the French army with great enthusiasm, also 
many Italian-Swiss. A large number of Alsace- 
Lorrainers are waiting near the frontier with a 
view of crossing it at a favorable opportunity to 
fight on the French side." 

Such absurdity in the face of the unbroken 
unanimity of the entire German people and 
despite the manifest enthusiasm of the Alsace- 
Lorrainers for the German cause. 

The sympathy of the Alsace-Lorrainers with 
France is notorious. If Bismarck had lived and 
remained in power, he would not have permitted 
the stupid tyranny and outrages which kept 
Alsace and Lorraine from contemplating any re- 
conciliation with Germany. We know that just 
before the war Alsatians and Lorrainers attempt- 
ing to go to France were murdered in cold blood. 
Any spies France may have in Germany, except 



Lies About Germany 183 

renegade Germans, and they cannot be many 
in so patriotic a country, unless they are rebels 
against the cruel militarism, must for linguistic 
reasons be Alsatians or Lorrainers. A pure 
Frenchman would have the greatest difficulty in 
passing for a German. 

As to the love of Alsace and Lorraine for Ger- 
many — have they already forgotten the Zabern 
incident? Though Lieutenant von Forstner, the 
brute who began it, was the first German officer 
taken prisoner in the war,^ and von Renter, the 
colonel of the regiment, has been killed. 

As the Italian-Swiss goes to France in large 
numbers in the cheap restaurant business, it is 
highly likely that there is an Italian-Swiss ele- 
ment in the French army. The Italians them- 
selves have formed a legion to fight for France. 
The men of Italian descent in the Austrian army, 
and many thousands of them are compelled to 
fight and are serving against Russia, surrender 
whenever they get the opportunity. 

Equally stupid and made up for incurably credu- 
lous readers is an official report of the French 
War Ministry — ^not a private rumor, be it noted, 
but an official communication. It says: *'A 
young Frenchman reports imder oath that he was 
arrested, along with several other Frenchmen, at 
the railway-station in Lorrach while on the home- 
ward journey from Baden; and they were led 
through the whole city under a military escort: 

^ He has since been reported killed fighting in the German 
ranks, so he must have been retaken. 



184 The Real Truth About Germany 

One of the Frenchmen shouted 'Hurrah for 
France!* and was at once shot down. Three 
others who protested against this suffered the 
same fate; and so did a fifth man, who thereupon 
had called the Germans murderers. The rest of 
the Frenchmen, proceeding to Switzerland by rail, 
heard shots fired in the adjoining compartment; 
they discovered that two Italians had been shot 
by Germans because one had protested against 
the opening of the window, and another had 
jostled a German." 

Does such stuff call for any refutation at all? 

As the German soldiers in Belgium cut down 
women and children whenever they uttered a 
Belgian sentiment, the statement is probably 
incapable of refutation. 

Any outrage short of murder might, under the 
circumstances, even in times of peace have 
happened against the Italians. But in time of war 
after Italy had refused to fight for Germany, the 
operation would have been invested with an 
atmosphere of holy zeal for the Fatherland. 

From The Times, August 31st, 19 14: 

"The leading Italian journal, the Corner e della Sera, of 
August 2 1st contains the following particulars of massacres 
of Italians by German troops in France and Germany : 

'"At Jarny (Meurthe-et-Moselle) an Italian named 
Bachetta kept a small cafe much frequented by Italian miners, 
Towards 8 a.m. of August 3d, several battalions of the 68th 
German Infantry entered Jarny, brushing aside the French 
defense. The Germans lost one killed and four wounded. 
The inhabitants of the town were immediately accused of 
having fired upon the German troops, whose commander 



Lies About Germany 185 

ordered all the male inhabitants to assemble in the principal 
square. The women and children, who tried to accompany 
their fathers and husbands, were driven away with the butt- 
ends of rifles or pricked with bayonets. One Italian woman, 
named Trolli, who strove to prevent her husband, who was 
ill in bed, from being taken to the square, was severely 
wounded. German patrols then searched every house. 

'"In the Italian cafe several miners' picks and other 
implements were found Thereupon fifteen Italians, whose 
names and birthplaces are given by the Coniere della Sera, 
were arrested and immediately shot. None of the Italians 
had offered any resistance or been guilty of any offense save 
the possession of their working tools. ' 

"The same journal publishes particulars of a massacre of 
Italian emigrants by German soldiers at Magdeburg. Some 
three thousand Italian workmen, who had been employed on 
railway construction at Duisburg and Cologne, were sent 
to Magdeburg and herded together in a barracks outside the 
town. On the evening of August nth one of the workmen 
announced that a train would be ready next day to take 
them to Italy. The announcement was loudly cheered. 
The soldiers on guard outside the rooms ordered the Italians 
to be silent, but as silence could not be restored immediately, 
an order was given to fire. Som.e soldiers fired high, but 
others fired directly into the mass, the fusillade being 
continued for twenty minutes. How many Italians were 
killed is not known, as there were several separate rooms, to 
which the panic-stricken workmen were confined while the 
dead and wounded were removed. One of the victims was 
a boy of twelve years. " 

A typical example of how it is sought to work 
on public opinion by means of systematic lying 
is afforded by the capture of Liege. 

The fact is that this Belgian stronghold, along 
with its forts, which contained a garrison of 20,000 
men, was taken by storm on August 7th by the 
German troops, who fought with unparalleled 



1 86 The Real Truth About Germany 

bravery, and that 3000 to 4000 Belgian prisoners 
of war are already on their way to Germany. 

Yet on August 9th — two days after the fall of 
Liege — a dispatch was still sent to the Dutch 
press, stating: **The Liege forts are still in Belgian 
hands." 

The German cannot resist the temptation to 
doctor military reports and dispatches. It does 
not seem even to occur to him to adhere to the 
text of truth in them; they are merely sermons 
delivered against the enemy or to influence 
opinion at home. Persons who concocted and 
published Mr. John Burns' s anti-war speech at 
the Albert Hall (a speech which J, B. never de- 
livered) must be authorities on " systematic 
lying." In this matter of Liege he really had an 
opportunity of scoring with the plain truth. But 
such a proceeding seemed unnatural. The Eng- 
lish mixed tip the tov/n of Liege with the forts from 
ignorance. The town itself was at the mercy of 
any force which determined to rush it, disregard- 
ing the zone of fire between any two of the forts, 
and sufficiently large to smash through the Bel- 
gian lines connecting the forts. The Germans 
brought up an immense force, and advancing in 
close formation, regardless of loss of life, soon 
took the town. 

With this they had the opportunity of pouring 
derision on President, King, and Emperor, who 
decorated or congratulated the defense of the 
forts, when the town, which the forts were de- 
signed to defend, had fallen. Not content with 



Lies About Germany 187 

this, they claim the reduction of the fortress 
a week or two before it was reduced. 

And on August 8th — thirty-six hours after the 
fall of Liege — a dispatch was sent from Paris to 
the newspapers of Rome, saying: ''The Germans 
lost 20,000 men at Liege, and asked for an armis- 
tice of twenty-four hours. Liege has not yet fallen. 
The English landed 100,000 men at Antwerp, 
who were received with jubilation by the popula- 
tion. President Poincare, upon the proposal of 
Doumergue, the Minister of War, conferred on the 
city of Liege the Cross of the Legion of Honor." 

Another newspaper reported as follows: "The 
King of England sent a congratulatory dispatch 
to the King of Belgium upon his victory at Liege; 
seven German regiments were slain." 

One naturally regards any northern war news 
from Rome with suspicion, unless the source is 
mentioned. For the only news which Italy can 
get which does not pass through France must 
emanate from Germany, which allows no news 
favorable to the Allies to pass even to its own 
people. We know that the English had not 
landed at Antwerp, and did not cross the Channel 
at all till long after this date. If they had landed 
at Antwerp, the Germans would have had to fight 
every inch of their way to Brussels. But we can- 
not feel as certain that the Germans did not lose 
twenty thousand men in casualties in the assault 
on the strong Liege forts, which they were unable 
to breach till the arrival of their eleven-inch 



1 88 The Real Truth About Germany 

howitzers. Trying to storm forts of this class with 
masses of men in close formation is a very ex- 
pensive proceeding. But the slaying of seven 
German regiments, which contain three thousand 
men each, does not tally with a total loss in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners of twenty thousand men. 
Against the congratulations to Liege upon its 
resistance one must set the reports of German 
naval victories with which the German official 
wireless has flooded Italy to make her join her 
late Allies. 

At Paris itself a note of the French War Ministry 
— published on the evening of August 7th, Liege 
having fallen in the early morning of that day — 
mentions the resistance of Liege, and says that 
the forts are still holding out; that the Germans 
who had entered the city on Thursday by passing 
between the forts had evacuated it on Friday; 
and that the Belgian division that went to the 
assistance of the city had therefore not even made 
an attack. The official note -concludes from all 
this that the resistance of the Belgians was seri- 
ously disturbing the plan of the Germans, who 
were building hopes upon a rapid success. 

And four full days after the capture of Liege 
the French Minister at Berne reported officially: 
" Liege has not yet been taken; the German troops 
were repulsed." 

There does not seem to be any difference of 
merit or demerit between the French, who spoke 
of the fortress as if it was the town, and the Ger- 



Lies About Germany 189 

mans, who spoke of the town as if it was the 
fortress, except that the Germans knew that they 
were throwing dust in the eyes of the public, and 
the French possibly did not. Of one thing there is 
not the smallest doubt, and that is that the resist- 
ance of the Belgians did seriously disturb the 
plan of the Germans by delaying their operations 
against France for a fortnight. 

At Copenhagen the following dispatches were 
published: ''The English and French troops had 
effected a junction with the Belgian army, and 
had entered Liege and made many German pris- 
oners, among them a nephew of the German 
Kaiser." 

Copenhagen is one of the chief magazines of 
German lies. It is humorous that a French or 
Belgian lie should have varied the monotony. In 
view of recent revelations one has a shrewd idea 
that these reports emanated from a German 
source which hid itself under the name of " Paris." 

Similarly at Stockholm: ''The Germans had 
suffered a severe repulse." 

This reads like a German wireless telegram in 
which the word Germans has been substituted 
by mistake for French or Russians. 

Again a dispatch from Paris to Rome: *'The 
Germans had been driven back behind the Moselle 
and were begging for an armistice ; the French had 
passed Namur and were pressing forward in forced 
marches, while 500,000 English were falling upon 
the German flank." 



I90 The Real Truth About Germany 

Rome, in this instance, must have felt the need 
of something sensational to balance the German 
fiction with which she was supplied, and invented 
some news and labelled it "Paris." Every 
newspaper of the least importance in Europe has 
been aware for many years that the English ex- 
peditionary army only consisted of about a hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men. If they had had five 
hundred thousand there would have been no war. 
Even the Prussian military chiefs, arrogant as 
they were, would not have wished to attack France 
and Russia with half a million English on their 
flank, or have contemplated entering Belgium 
when it would have meant the landing of this 
enormous English army. 

Still another official report from Paris: "Liege 
is becoming the grave of the 150,000 Germans who 
are breaking their heads against its walls; the 
Belgians had taken 3000 prisoners, who were in a 
terrible condition; but for their good fortune of 
falling into captivity they would have starved to 
death." 

In contrast to all this let us take the unvarnished 
truth as in the reported simple words of the Ger- 
man Quartermaster-General: "We are now able 
to report upon Liege without doing any harm. . . . 
We had only a weak force at Liege four days ago, 
for it is not possible to prepare for such a bold 
undertaking by collecting large masses of men. 
That we attained the desired end in spite of this 
is due to the excellent preparation, the valor of 



Lies About Germany 191 

our troops, their energetic leadership, and the 
help of God. The courage of the enemy was 
broken, and his troops fought badly. The difficul- 
ties against us lay in the exceedingly tinfavorable 
topography of the surroundings, which consisted 
of hills and woods, and in the treacherous par- 
ticipation of the entire population in the fight- 
ing, not even excluding women. The people 
fired upon our troops from ambush, from villages 
and forests — fired upon our physicians who were 
treating the woimded, and upon the wounded 
themselves. Hard and bitter fighting occurred; 
whole villages had to be destroyed in order to 
break the resistance, before our brave troops 
penetrated the girdle of forts and took possession 
of the city. It is true that a part of the forts 
still held out, but they no longer fired. The Kaiser 
did not want to waste a drop of blood in storming 
the forts, which no longer hindered the carrying 
out of our plans. We were able to await the 
arrival of heavy artillery to level the forts one 
after the other at our leisure, and without the 
sacrifice of a single life — ^in case their garrisons 
should not surrender sooner. ... So far as can 
be judged at present the Belgians had more men 
for the defense of the city than we had for storm- 
ing it. Every expert can measure from this fact 
the greatness of our achievement; it is without a 
parallel. . . . 

" (Signed) von Stein, 

^'Quartermaster-General." 



192 The Real Truth About Germany 

The Quartermaster-General von Stein has a 
name which has since become very familiar, 
owing to his accidentally telling the truth about 
the German defeat on the Marne. He announced 
that several thousand Germans and fifty of their 
guns had been captured. The effect on Germany 
was so bad that he was severely censured. He 
hastened to say that the Germans had not lost 
fifty guns and those thousands of prisoners, 
but that he meant that they had taken that num- 
ber from the French. He was not truthful; the 
Germans had lost fifty guns. 

Here also von Stein lets the truth out of the bag. 
He admits that it was not true that all the forts 
had surrendered — that some of them still held out, 
but no longer fired, which meant that they were 
reserving their ammunition until the Germans 
sent up their heavy masses to try again to storm 
them. No sane man will quarrel with the Kaiser 
for ordering them to be left alone until the heavy 
guns came up which could reduce them without 
loss of life. There is a characteristic von Stein 
note at the end of the report, in which he believes 
that the Belgians had larger forces at Liege than 
the Germans. 

It is not the German people alone that will have 
cause to remember Liege; the whole world will 
do well to learn from the case of Liege that an 
organized manufactory of lies is trying to deceive 
the public opinion of all the nations. Glorious 
victories are converted into ''defeats with heavy 
losses," and the strong moral discipline of the 



Lies About Germany 193 

German troops is slanderously described in the 
reports of the imaginative, phrase-loving French 
as cruelty — just as, in 1870, the Prussian Uhlans 
were described as thrusting through with their 
lances all the French babies and pinning them 
fast to the walls. 

The enemies of Germany will certainly have 
reason to remember Liege, not only as a place 
whose valiant resistance had a great effect in up- 
setting the German plans for taking France by 
surprise, but as a place where they got, to use the 
schoolboy's phrase, "an awful sell." They 
certainly thought that Liege could laugh at the 
German attack until the English and French had 
time to come up and relieve it. In the face of the 
outrages they committed at Louvain, Dinant, and 
Termonde, the fact that the Uhlans did not play 
tent-pegging with the Belgian babies while their 
officers attended to burning the town, is to be 
ascribed not so much to the strong moral dis- 
cipline of the German troops as to the fact that if 
they could make Belgium a German province, 
Liege, with its manufactories for weapons and 
locomotive engines, would become one of the 
chief manufacturing towns of the German Empire. 
To burn Liege would not be burning an adored 
national monument of the enemy, but burning 
bank-notes which could be converted into gold at 
sight. 

How far the grande nation has already degen- 
erated, and how far the Belgian population, akin 
to the French both in blood and in sentiments, 
13 



194 The Real Truth About Germany 

imitate the French in their Balkan brutality, is 
illustrated by two examples. One of these, in the 
form of a German official warning, says: "The 
reports at hand about the fighting around Liege 
show that the population of the country took part 
in the battle. Our troops were fired upon from 
ambush. Physicians were shot at while following 
their profession. Cruelties were practised by the 
population on wounded soldiers. There is also 
news at hand showing that German patrols in 
the vicinity of Metz were fired at from ambush 
from the French side." 

"Franc tireur'* accusations were part of the 
German plan of campaign in 1870, and were so 
useful that they form a much more prominent 
part this time. The population are terrorized by 
wholesale executions and burnings, on the pal- 
triest evidence, for sniping. The English, on the 
other hand, allowed the largest latitude to the 
enemy in this respect in the Boer War. Innu- 
merable German outrages against the Red Cross 
are reported. 

"It may be that these occurrences are due to 
the composition of the population in those indus- 
trial regions, but it may also be that France and 
Belgium are preparing for a guerrilla warfare upon 
our troops. If the latter alternative should prove 
true, and this proof be strengthened through repe- 
titions of these occurrences, then our opponents 
will have themselves to thank if this war be car- 
ried on with unrelenting severity even against 



Lies About Germany 195 

the guilty population. The German troops, who 
are accustomed to preserve discipline and to wage 
war only against the armed forces of the hostile 
state, cannot be blamed if, in just self-defense, 
they give no quarter. The hope of influencing 
the result of the war by turning loose the passions 
of the populace will be frustrated by the unshaken 
energy of our leaders and our troops. Before 
neutral foreign countries, however, it must be 
demonstrated, even at the beginning of this war, 
that it was not the German troops who caused 
the war to take on such forms." 

The details of the cruelties, here only hinted at 
on the Belgian and French side, are supplied and 
proved by an eye-witness, a German physician, 
who reports: **We have experienced from the 
Belgian population, from men, women, and half- 
grown boys, such things as we had hitherto seen 
only in wars with negroes. The Belgian civilian 
population shoots in blind hatred from every 
house, from every thick bush, at everything that 
is German. We had on the very first day many 
dead and wounded, caused by the civilian popula- 
tion." 

The writer of the pamphlet assumes that the 
stories about civilians attacking troops are true, 
and says that it may be " due to the composition 
of the population in those industrial regions," 
or may be due to France and Belgium having 
determined on a system of guerrilla warfare, in 
which case war is to be " carried on with un- 



196 The Real Truth About Germany 

relenting severity even against the guilty pop- 
ulation." Doubtless Louvain represents the 
German militarists' idea of severity, but even 
German troops can forget themselves sometimes. 
" Accustomed as they were to preserve discipline 
and wage war only against the armed forces of 
the hostile state," when they were driven back 
from Paris they wrecked the furniture of all the 
chateaux of the Marne, and broke into the wine- 
stores of all the great growers of champagne. 

The report that in the mining districts of Bel- 
gium, by way of discouraging the resistance of 
civilians, they filled up the mine-shafts when the 
miners were down in the mines has had a greater 
influence in promoting the recruiting among the 
miners of Northumberland and Yorkshire than 
any feeling of patriotism for their country. Offi- 
cers, before they countenance measures of ven- 
geance against civilians taking part in warfare, 
should remember that where large national 
questions may leave a socialistic population like 
miners quite cold, a fiendish piece of cruelty to 
one of their own class in the exercise of his 
profession may light a flame which is never 
extinguished. 

"Women take part as v^ell as men. One Ger- 
man had his throat cut at night while in bed. 
Five wounded Germans were put into a' house 
bearing the flag of the Red Cross; by the next 
morning they had all been stabbed to death. In 
a village near Verviers we found the body of one 
of our soldiers with his hands bound behind his 



Lies About Germany 197 

back and his eyes punched out. An automobile 
column which set out from Liege halted in a 
village; a young woman came up, suddenly drew 
a revolver, and shot a chauffeur dead. At Em- 
merich, an hour by foot from Aachen, a sanitary- 
automobile column was attacked by the populace 
on a large scale and fired at from the houses. 
The Red Cross on our sleeves and on our auto- 
mobiles gives us physicians no protection at all." 

The Germans seem to have forgotten that the 
Flemings are of the same blood as the Boers, and 
that the Belgian papers reprinted the rapturous 
applause with which any outrage committed by 
the Boers against British stragglers, or under a 
treacherous use of the white flag, or in any other 
way, was received by the German Press. That 
was blessed by the eternal spirit of freedom, that 
was inspiring a small Power to a heroic resistance 
against a big bully. It was unfortunate that the 
Belgians should see the matter in exactly the 
same light as the Boers. I think that the English 
may in fairness admit that the Belgian peasantry, 
when the war began, did not understand, and 
very likely could not be made to understand, that 
they must not fight tooth and nail against the 
invader. But the Germans should have been 
satisfied with the same punishment as the Eng- 
lish meted out in cases of genuine treachery in 
the South African war — to burn the house or farm 
from which the shot came, not the whole town, 
and to shoot anyone caught committing a murder 
or destroying a railway line or anything else 



198 The Real Truth About Germany 

which might cause death to the English troops. 
The English allowed men without uniform to 
band together for the defense of their village. 
They only punished treachery, and this is one 
of the principal causes which has made the 
Dutch in South Africa so loyal to the English in 
the present crisis. They have no ineffaceable 
memories. 

Enemies on all sides ! With dishonorable weap- 
ons against us, and with documentary lies for the 
rest of the world! Let us calmly allow them to 
continue lying and slandering as they have begun 
— ^it will result finally in injuring themselves. 
The world will very soon see through this impu- 
dent, unabashed game ; and it will finally side with 
the people which keeps to the truth. Only the 
weakling lies and swindles; the strong man loves 
and honors truth. Let us act like the strong man 
in the struggle ! 

It is very unkind of the writers of this book to 
apply such hard names to the German Ambassa- 
dor in the United States. Surely he will resent 
their describing his efforts on their behalf as 
" this impudent unabashed game," and being 
called a " weakling "? Is it not a military offense 
to use such language of von Stein, Quartermaster- 
General of the German Army? These two men 
have done their best and, as far as one can make 
out, are acting under instructions from higher 
quarters. 

To be serious, the writers of this book can have 
no sense of humor when they talk of documen- 



Lies About Germany 199 

tary lies for the rest of the world — while the rest 
of the world is pouring derision on the wireless 
messages sent out by the German official lies 
bureau, and even Holland, on which they can 
exercise most pressure, refuses to print them any 
longer. Nothing is more certain than that Ameri- 
can opinion will finally side with the people which 
keeps to the truth. It knows to-day that the offi- 
cial report from Russia which says that Austria has 
lost two hundred and fifty thousand men in killed 
and wounded and a hundred thousand in prison- 
ers is true ; and it cannot have the same respect 
for the Wolff Agency. A Swiss paper has taken 
the trouble to add up the losses of the Allies in 
the Wolff reports, and finds that " the French 
have up to the present lost 880,000 men in killed 
and prisoners. 

"The Germans claim to have captured: 177 
generals, 12 13 flags, and 11,982 cannons. 

" According to the agency, the British army has 
already been annihilated twice, and as for the 
Russians, the Germans claim to have made 
800,000 of them prisoners, and conducted them to 
Berlin." 

The Wolff Agency is the go-between which has 
endeavored to bring the Havas Agency, Renter's 
and the other telegraphic services of the world 
into line with the Hammann Official Press Bureau 
in Berlin. The two agencies named hastened to 
repudiate the statement so far as they are con- 
cerned. Some day even the Canary Press' will 
turn. 
I Hammann takes care to keep a paper in the Canary Islands 
au courant, with wireless. 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER IX 

The Times, August 8th, 1914: 

"FRENCH AMBASSADOR INSULTED." 
"Journey to frontier." 

"... After being refused permission to leave Germany 
through Holland or Belgium, as he intended, he accepted an offer 
to travel through Vienna, but a few hours later received from an 
official of the German Foreign Office a notification that he and 
the staff of the Embassy would be taken to Denmark, though it 
might be impossible for him to obtain a passage from Denmark 
to England or France. . . . The journey to Denmark lasted 
more than twenty-four hours. No food was provided. On 
nearing the Kiel Canal soldiers entered the train; windows were 
ordered to be pulled up, and blinds were drawn. The Ambassa- 
dor and his staff, as well as the ladies and children, were ordered 
to remain motionless and not to attempt to touch their hand 
baggage. A soldier was placed at the door of each compartment 
with a revolver in his hand and his finger on the trigger. After 
having been treated almost as a prisoner in Berlin, the Ambassa- 
dor was treated in the train as a dangerous individual. 

"Shortly before reaching the frontier the Ambassador was 
informed that the train would not proceed unless he paid imme- 
diately for the cost of it. He was told that the amount would be 
approximately 5000 f. (£200). In payment he drew a cheque 
for that amount on one of the principal Berlin banks. It was 
refused, and immediate payment in gold was demanded. With 
great difficulty the sum was collected in gold from the various 
members of the staff and from the Russian Consul-General at 
Darmstadt. On receiving the cash the German officer in com- 
mand of the train. Major von Rheinbahen, gave his word of 
honor that the journey would be completed. " 

200 



CHAPTER IX 

GERMANY AND THE FOREIGNER 

RESPECT FOR THE FOREIGNER — RUSSIANS WILLING 
TO REMAIN IN GERMANY — ILL-TREATMENT OF 
^GERMANS IN BELGIUM AND FRANCE 



RESPECT for the foreigner, protection for his 
person and property have at all times been 
considered sacred among civilized people. Ger- 
many can without exaggeration claim to have 
upheld this respect and this protection in these 
fateful days. Except for a few insignificant inci- 
dents which took place in several large cities, 
where the natural excitement of the people and 
the legitimate defense against an insolent system 
of spying led to the molesting and arrest of for- 
eigners — mostly Russians — the measures taken 
against the citizens of hostile nations did not 
exceed what was absolutely necessary to the safety 
of the country. 

Among the insignificant incidents which took 
place in large cities may be mentioned the treat- 
ment of a British Consul, who comes of a family 
famous in our diplomatic service, at one of the 
chief seaports of Germany. He and his wife and 

201 



202 The Real Truth About Germany 

his daughter were invited by one of the chief 
officials to a friendly dinner. While they were at 
dinner a man came in with a letter. The official 
smiled and tossed off a glass of champagne ; then 
he smiled again and tossed off another glass of 
champagne; then he smiled again and tossed off 
a third glass. By that time he was thoroughly 
excited, and cried out: " Yes, the best of news! 
War is declared." Then he turned to the Consul 
and his wife and daughter, and called them dogs 
and pigs and reptiles, and rang the bell and sent 
for soldiers, who dragged them away and spat all 
over the Consul's wife. They took them to a 
prison where they threw them into a filthy room 
with thieves and criminals. They left them 
there for two days without any food or water or 
sanitary arrangements. Then they dragged them 
out again and pushed them into a train, still with- 
out any food or drink. The train went on and on, 
until they were bundled out at a station to change 
trains. The daughter was by this time go ex- 
hausted that she was nearly dying. Looking for 
someone to save her life, she saw a Red Cross 
nurse attending to someone, and implored her to 
give her a drink of water. The German nurse 
turned round and called them " Dogs of English," 
and said that she would rather die than do it. 

The Imperial Government and likewise the 
Federate States have refrained from expelling en 
masse Frenchmen, Russians, Belgians, and English- 
men. It was, of course, unavoidable to take 
measures for the detention of such persons as 



Germany and the Foreigner 203 

seemed suspicious and for the intemation of 
strangers liable to be called to take arms against 
Germany. This took place in cities, e. g., Berlin, 
where these men were taken away as ''prisoners 
of war," as soon as the ''state of war" had been 
proclaimed, and placed in special rooms or camps. 
Lodgings and food such as seem requisite were 
provided and the treatment of these prisoners is, 
according to their own opinion, very kind. 

The Germans pride themselves on having 
refrained from expelling " en masse " the male 
subjects of the Allies. They have more than re- 
frained. Quite elderly men — persons of Euro- 
pean reputation — were unable to get away, as well 
as enemies of military age, whom all states de- 
tain in war. Their treatment seems to have been 
quite fair. 

The Russian agricultural laborers constitute a 
special group of foreigners in Germany: there are 
about 40,000-50,000 of them, men and women. 

From various parts of the country, it is unan- 
imously announced that these people are very 
glad not to be obliged to return to Russia. They 
are glad to remain in Germany, and willingly 
continue their work of gathering the rich German 
grain, potato, and hay crops. Should there be 
any difficulties, these workmen would also have 
to be intemated. 

There were, according to this account, when 
war broke out, forty or fifty thousand of these 
Russians who had not obeyed the caution sent 



204 The Real Truth About Germany 

them from their country to get out of Germany. 
Whether they are willing or not, they have to 
remain there to do the harvesting as usual. 
There are no complaints to be made about the 
general treatment of the women and children of 
the enemy who happen to be in Germany. In 
some places they receive a great deal of rudeness, 
in others infinite kindness, but they are never, I 
believe, maltreated. 

No measures at all have been taken against 
women and children belonging to hostile states. 
They are left free to move about as they v^ish. 
Should they remain in Germany they can be 
sure that they will be subject to no other incon- 
venience except such as the general state of war 
inflicts upon Germans. The authorities will pro- 
tect their persons, and their private property is 
respected. Nobody will touch it — as nobody has 
touched it so far. 

The reports of the treatment of neutrals vary. 
Americans were at first frequently taken for 
English people, and suffered accordingly. Many 
Americans who have come over to England are 
boiling with indignation at the treatment which 
they have received, and these people, returning to 
America, are thorns in the side of " Count John 
Bernstorfif " and the German- Jews who run the 
German-American papers and are organizing a 
Press campaign to influence American opinion 
in favor of Germany. The other Jewish papers 
are among the most severe critics of German 
militarism. 



Germany and the Foreigner 205 

If the German people and the German Govern- 
ment consider the respect they owe the foreigner 
as a sacred law, even though the foreigner belongs 
to the enemy, this respect is enhanced by affection 
and gratitude in the case of foreigners whose 
countries are friendly or neutral. Thousands 
and thousands of Americans, Swiss, Dutch, 
Italians, and Scandinavians are still living in 
German countries. They may be sure that they 
live as freely here as any German citizen. Should 
it be possible for them to return home, the best 
wishes will accompany them. The property they 
leave here will be protected. This is guaranteed 
by the authorities and by influential private 
persons. Should they stay in Germany, however, 
the German people will express their sense of 
gratitude for any friendly help they may lend, 
by increased respect and protection. 

According to the American refugees, the Ger- 
man treatment of all foreigners except neutrals 
of nations whom they were trying to conciliate was 
very bad indeed. The full brutality of Prussian 
militarism was turned upon these unfortunate 
people. A short time after the war broke out, the 
Kaiser, desperately conscious of the isolation of 
Germany, gave orders that the Americans and the 
Dutch and the Swiss were to be conciliated in 
every possible way. The Swiss are allowed to 
import the food supplies and coal supplies which 
they draw from Germany as usual, and the Dutch 
are allowed to pass in and out of Germany, in 



2o6 The Real Truth About Germany 

uniform or plain clothes, as they please, and are 
allowed to use bicycles, motor-cycles, and motors 
with a freedom from restriction and red-tape 
which they have never enjoyed in their lives 
before in Germany. The Swiss are specially 
favored, because there seems to be no doubt that 
the Kaiser meant to throw a force through Swit- 
zerland on France, and was confronted by such a 
force that he was frightened and drew back. 
The Swiss were suspicious of his intentions, and 
had two hundred thousand men ready, which, in 
an impregnable country like Switzerland, was far 
too big a bite even for the Kaiser. He has been 
especially anxious to efface the memory of the 
Basle incident. The Swiss are glad to enjoy 
favors, but remain ready to strike on any real 
provocation. 

As to the Italians, they have been treated quite 
as badly as the English or French — are being 
punished, in fact, for not declaring war on Ger- 
many's side. Immense pressure has been 
brought upon them to change their minds, and 
should they do so, there will doubtless be a 
marked difference in the treatment of the Italians 
in Germany. The bid for Italian support is shown 
by the swarm of German commercial travelers 
in Italy who are offering Italian shopkeepers 
impossible discounts, impossible terms of credit, 
and delivery with unheard-of dispatch. 

A strong contrast is noticeable between Ger- 
many's attitude towards foreigners and the facts 
revealed just now as to the treatment meted out 



Germany and the Foreigner 207 

in inimical countries not only to Germans but 
to other foreigners. Truly, in England, there has 
been some effort to act according to the usages of 
civilized nations when engaged in warfare. Ger- 
mans and Austrians have been insulted and mo- 
lested ; there has been some occasional destruction 
of property in stores; but, as far as can be judged, 
these were excesses of an uncontrollable mob. A 
general expulsion has not been ordered, and it is 
to be hoped that the Germans living in the United 
Kingdom and in its colonies will not suffer too 
heavy damages, in person or in property. 

Germany allows England one merit: whereas 
other countries except Germany are behaving 
very badly to enemies " and other foreigners," 
England has made some effort to act as a civilized 
nation. Germans and Austrians have been in- 
sulted and molested, and their stores occasionally 
wrecked. This, it may be remarked, was not due 
to wantonness on the part of the mob, but was 
solely where the proprietor could not deny him- 
self the pleasure of insulting the English, or was 
trying to make a " famine " profit out of the war. 

It acknowledges that Germans and Austrians 
have not been expelled. Since they have not 
they ought to be in concentration camps. It is 
certainly wrong that there should be any of the 
fighting age, or otherwise able to do damage, at 
large in England, and the fact that many hotel- 
managers and waiters — a larger percentage of 
the former has not suffered — are still employed, 
and an immense number of Germans are still 



2o8 The Real Truth About Germany 

controlling various businesses in London and 
elsewhere, is wrong and dangerous. An exact 
account of their property should be taken, so that 
it may be restored to them intact after the war, 
and where they have businesses, these should 
be placed in the hands of official receivers or 
trustees. 

Russia, France, and Belgium on the other hand, 
have by the ill-treatment and plundering of foreign- 
ers living in their countries, struck themselves out 
of the list of civilized nations. Innumerable re- 
ports from expelled or fugitive people prove this, 
and official reports confirm them. Also the press 
of neutral, neighboring countries, such as Switzer- 
land, Holland, and Italy is full of similar complaints. 
Owing to the scarcity of news from Russia, the 
facts known so far only concern St. Petersburg, 
where German and Austrian men and women, 
residents or transients, were beaten or stoned in 
the streets. Here were also some cruel mutila- 
tions and murders 

It is certain that Russia, France, and Belgium 
have not ill-treated any foreigners except their 
enemies, and there is strong evidence to prove 
that the numerous Germans in Antwerp were 
being well treated until it was discovered that 
practically all of them were serving the enemy in 
some treacherous way or other, like the German 
at Zanzibar who sent a message to the " Koenigs- 
berg" that the "Pegasus" was undergoing re- 
pairs and unable to get up steam. Then the 
Belgian indignation became very strong, but none 



Germany and the Foreigner 209 

of the alleged barbarities appear to have been 
true. 

Austrians and Germans were not turned out of 
Paris until the siege of Paris appeared to be im- 
minent at the beginning of September. So many 
were expelled then that there could have been no 
general expulsion before. 

Russia keeps her affairs to herself, but the 
behavior of her soldiers in the field has been so 
good compared with that of the Germans that 
there is no reason why she should have behaved 
badly to German and Austrian residents. Indeed, 
her police arrangements are so thorough, that it 
may have been possible to allow them their usual 
liberties. 

To say that Switzerland, Holland, and Italy 
are full of complaints about the behavior of the 
Allies is one of the most colossal falsehoods in a 
book where they grow large. The Italians have 
not moved out of France or England, the only 
two countries in which there are any great num- 
ber of them. They have been living entirely un- 
molested and on such cordial terms that they 
have been holding huge meetings to enlist Italian 
legions to serve in the English and French armies. 

The relations between Switzerland and France 
and Italy and France are so cordial that the 
French have withdrawn nearly all their garrison- 
ing forces on the Swiss and Italian borders. 

Holland is chiefly concerned with Belgium, and 
Germany knows better than anyone else how 
cordial the relations of the two countries are, and 
how furious the Dutch are over the German 
atrocities in Belgium. 



210 The Real Truth About Germany 

The beautiful building of the German Embassy 
in St. Petersburg was attacked by the mob. And 
the police watched all these misdeeds with crossed 
arms or even assisted. Probably what took place 
in Petersburg also occurred in other Russian cities; 
we shall soon know. 

The appended cutting from "The Times" 
shows how justified the Russians were in raiding 
the German Embassy at St. Petersburg. Using 
the Embassy for the distribution of weapons and 
seditious literature is one of the most disgraceful 
episodes in the history of diplomacy. 

The Times f August 8th, 1914: 

"St. Petersburg, August 7th. 

"The outrage on the German Embassy has brought a 
strange aftermath. From trustworthy witnesses I hear that 
large quantities of rifles, revolvers, and seditious proclama- 
tions were discovered by the wreckers. It looks as if the 
German Embassy had been used as a secret center for revolu- 
tionary propaganda." 

There are a great many coniplaints against the 
French and the Belgians.- On the evening of 
August 1st, the mobilization was annoimced, and 
the next morning the official order was posted on 
the walls that within twenty -four hours from the 
beginning of the day, all Germans and Austrians, 
irrespective of age, sex, or profession, would have 
to leave France. Those who remained and could 
not reach the boundary would be taken to the 
southwestern part of the country and imprisoned. 

As mentioned on the preceding page, there is 
the plainest evidence that German and Austrians 



Germany and the Foreigner 211 

were not expelled from France on the ist August, 
because a general expulsion of them from Paris 
had to be proclaimed a month later, when Paris 
feared a siege. 

There were few trains tor Belgium or Switzer- 
land. Thousands and thousands who had to 
abandon their property, rushed to the stations 
with wife and children, fought for room in the 
overcrowded trains, surrounded by a howling 
mob, and even then were punched and slapped by 
policemen. During the trip there was nothing 
but misery. Men and women fell ill, children 
died. The refugees had to cross the Belgian 
boundary, walking a distance of 6-7 kilometers 
in the middle of the night, dead-tired, their lug- 
gage stolen — sometimes, it is said, by officials. 
In Belgium the same tragedy occurred as in France. 

With his usual total lack of humor and im- 
agination, the writer of this egregious book de- 
scribes what happened in Germany to the French 
and other enemies, and says that this is the 
way in which the French behaved to the Germans. 

And then came the salvation. The cordial, 
hospitable reception by the Germans in Holland 
and Switzerland is unanimously praised and 
appreciated. 

Holland is rather suspected of having shown 
special favor to Germans, but it is difficult not 
to be kind and courteous to a burglar who holds 
a loaded automatic pistol to your head. The 



212 The Real Truth About Germany 

Dutch doubtless had to deserve all the nice 
things which the Germans say about their be- 
havior. 

The Swiss seem to have behaved well to all 
foreigners, but as Switzerland was at peace with 
all of them, and Switzerland's national business 
of keeping hotels and pensions depends on having 
a plentiful supply of the raw material in the shape 
of foreigners requiring accommodation, there is 
no reason why Switzerland should not have 
welcomed them. But Switzerland was not only 
glad to receive all the foreigners who had been 
turned out of any country and could pay for their 
accommodation. The Swiss felt that humanity 
compelled them to charge exiles the lowest 
possible prices, though the refugees would not 
get bedrooms in the finest and most expensive 
hotels for a shilling a night, like they can in Berlin. 
One admires the Germans very much if this is 
true, as is alleged ; there must be many refugees 
in Berlin, and to give them rooms at this moderate 
price strikes me as being magnificent. 

The reports of brutal acts from Paris, Antwerp, 
Brussels would be incredible, were they not con- 
firmed hundred -fold. The most brutal and in- 
sulting threats of death were flung by processions 
of people going through the streets, to all those 
who looked like foreigners. They were severely 
ill-treated. Houses and stores were upset, fur- 
niture and the like was thrown into the streets, 
employees and working people were dragged out, 
women were stripped and pushed through the 



Germany and the Foreigner 213 

streets, children were thrown out of windows. 
Knives, swords, sticks, and revolvers were used. 
One could fill books with the details, but they are 
all equally cruel. Not only Germans and Austri- 
ans were expelled and ill-treated, but citizens of 
neutral states shared this awful lot. Thousands 
of Italians were expelled, as well as numerous 
Rumanians. The press in both countries com- 
plains bitterly and asks what has become of those 
who remained in France and were imprisoned in 
the South — but nobody knows. 

The details of brutalities in Paris, Antwerp, and 
Brussels are, in most of their viler and more 
picturesque aspects, fictions of the fertile brain 
of Hammann and the papers and people whom he 
hires to " invent " for the German authorities — 
the people who have made " wireless " almost 
synonymous with " false " in the matter of news. 
If the writer of this book, in repeating the fictions 
of Hammannias, had confined himself to Germans 
and Austrians, he might have had some chance 
of being believed, because Hammannias would 
have supplied him — with Germans, at any rate, 
who would have given their evidence according 
to the directions of the Bureau; if he could not 
have got Germans from Paris and Antwerp and 
Brussels, he would have got Germans from his 
office, and the world would not have known that 
they had never left Berlin. There were really 
great openings in this direction, but in an un- 
guarded moment he added : " Citizens of neutral 
States shared this awful lot. Thousands of 



214 The Real Truth About Germany 

Italians were" expelled as well as numerous 
Rumanians." 

The writer of this book is one of the most foolish 
liars I ever had to criticize. We know — and he 
knows, if he knows anything of current events — 
that the Governments of Italy and Rumania can 
hardly prevent their people from taking up arms 
for France and Belgium and " their great Allies, 
England and Russia." If thousands of Italians 
and Rumanians have been subjected to such 
awful treatment by the French and Belgians, why 
are the Italians and Rumanians straining at the 
leash to fight for these countries against the good 
neighbors of Germany and Austria? Why is the 
press in Italy trying to lash the Government into 
declaring war against Austria and Germany for 
the peoples who have oppressed them so cruelly? 

If what he says about Italians and Rumanians 
is so palpably and absolutely untrue, why does 
the writer deserve any credence in what he has 
to say about their fellow-victims from Germany 
and Austria? Ananias might have written it 
himself. 

History will place this ill-treatment and oppres- 
sion of foreigners on record. The responsibility 
rests not with an uncontrollable mob, but with 
the Government and the authorities of the two 
countries who have always boasted of their culture. 

If Germans and Austrians were so badly 
treated in France and Belgium, and the responsi- 
bility rests not with the mobs but with the Gov- 
ernments and authorities, cannot the destruction 



Germany and the Foreigner 215 

and massacres at Louvain, Dinant, and Termonde, 
and the bombarding of the incomparable Cathe- 
dral of Rheims, be traced directly to the Kaiser's 
order to employ " f rightfulness " (of outrages, 
behavior, etc.) for terrorizing the peoples of in- 
vaded countries? The German military com- 
manders who actually gave the word for these 
destructions would never have done so if they 
had expected the disapproval of the Kaiser. He 
is said to have given special orders to his Zep- 
pelins to try and drop bombs upon Oxford, so as 
to give England something to remember. It 
would have been better that the world should 
have gone without the picture which he has 
painted and the opera which he has composed — 
priceless as they are — than that he should do 
thisl 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER X 

There is no such thing as commerce between Germany and the 
United States. It has ceased to exist. The Americans will 
themselves manufacture the raw materials, which they have 
hitherto been selling to Germany, and will supply the customers, 
who have hitherto been buying from Germany. 



2l6 



CHAPTER X 

commerce and trade relations between 
germany and the united states 

Germany's financial rise since 1870 — export 

and import with the u. s. a. — ^the present 

firm condition of german finance 

POLITICIANS and commercial men must base 
their plans upon facts, as they are, and not 
as they wish they were, otherwise they fail. 
France has closed its eyes not only to the great 
intellectual and moral assets of Germany, but 
also to its commercial resources. 

The foolish person (or persons) who wrote 
this book appears to be ignorant that Germany's 
commercial development is largely due to money 
borrowed from France. One could understand 
France being blind to the "moral assets" of 
Germany, but she must know something of the 
commerce carried on with her money. 

France has repeatedly declared that Germany 
could not effect a serious political opposition, 
because a war would result in the ruin of its com- 
mercial and financial strength. This we heard in 

the Morocco crises, also in the Balkan wars. 

217 



2i8 The Real Truth About Germany 

It was owing to Germany's having to compro- 
mise the last Morocco crisis because England, and 
especially France and Russia, called in their 
money, that Germany took care to secure her 
own finances, and try and wreck other people*s, 
before she put into execution the carefully-laid 
plot to force on a European war this summer 
by making Austria demand from Servia what 
could not be given without Russia's declaring 
war. 

From the British Ambassador in Vienna's re- 
port, it is quite clear that Germany forced on 
the war as suddenly as kicking over a bucket, 
when Austria realized that if she did not withdraw 
she would have Russia on her, without a doubt. 
Nor, considering that Austria has lost three 
hundred and fifty thousand men in fighting Russia 
and another fifty thousand in fighting Servia, 
can she be blamed for having qualms. On 
August ist, the very day that Germany declared 
war on Russia, the Austrian Ambassador in- 
formed Sir Edward Grey that Austria had neither 
"banged the door" on compromise nor cut off 
the conversations. Austria did not declare war 
on Russia till August 6th, and the French Am- 
bassador at Vienna did not demand his passports 
till August i2th, and Great Britain informed the 
Austrian Ambassador that a state of war would 
exist between the two countries from midnight 
of the same day. But the report of the British 
Ambassador at Vienna shows that Austria kept 
all the Ambassadors, except Germany's, com- 
pletely in the dark till her ultimatum against 
Servia was launched. She doubtless believed 



Trade between Germany and U. S. 219 

that the Powers of the Triple Entente were too 
unready for war to object to the "fait accompli." 

Germany's love of peace, which was tested in 
the above-mentioned cases, strengthened the 
French in their error. He, however, who has 
taken the trouble to visit Germany and the Ger- 
mans in their places of employment — and espe- 
cially Americans in recent years have done this, 
however also many English,^ who in vain have 
protested against the war with Germany — he can 
testify to the astonishing commercial advance- 
ment which Germany has made since its political 
union by Bismarck. 

The error of the French lay in their imagining 
that Germany had a love of peace. The writer 
of this book only shows an astonishing ignorance 
of the world when he supposes that any 
Government was blind to "the astonishing com- 
mercial advancement of Germany." 

A few facts and statistics may recall this to 
memory. The population of Germany has, since 
1870, immigrants excluded, increased from forty 
millions to sixty-seven millions, round numbers. 
Incomes and wages in particular have approxi- 
mately doubled during the last generation; sav- 
ings-deposits have increased sixfold. Although, 
only a generation ago, commerce and trade em- 
ployed only about two fifths of the population, 
now more than three fifths are engaged in this 

* This is German English-grammar. 



220 The Real Truth About Germany 

field of work, and Germany, as a result of its 
agricultural economy and increased intense farm- 
ing, is to-day the third largest agricultural country 
of the world. In the coal and iron industries, 
Germany is second only to America. In one 
generation its coal production increased two and 
a half fold, its iron production almost fourfold. 
During the same period of time the capital of the 
German banks increased fourfold and their reserve- 
fund eightfold. Characteristic of Germany is the 
fact that hand in hand with this active private 
initiative is a strong feeling for the great universal 
interests and for organic cooperation of private 
and state resources. This feeling explains the 
perfect working of our state activities, in particu- 
lar our railways, 95 per cent, of which are owned 
by the Government, and which yield essentially 
higher revenues than those in England or France ; 
it explains further the willing assumption of the 
great financial burdens which general insurance 
imposes upon those engaged in private enterprises, 
and which to-day is proving a blessing to almost 
the entire laboring force of Germany, to an extent 
which has not yet been realized by any other 
country. 

We may take it for granted that the writer is 
for once talking both sense and truth when he 
puts down the population of Germany at sixty- 
seven millions in round numbers. We need not 
dispute the vulgar fractions he employs in say- 
ing what proportion of Germans are engaged in 



Trade between Germany and U. S. 221 

agriculture, and what in manufacture and trade. 
We will allow him to say what he likes about the 
increases in German banks, without dispute, un- 
less we are thinking of investing in them. 

We have nothing but admiration for the organic 
cooperation of private and state resources and 
private and state activities in German commerce 
and manufactures. We believe that England 
could not do better in this and many other phases 
of commerce than imitate the noble and patriotic 
example of Germany. 

That the German Government has created in 
less than half a century such a mighty commercial 
fabric will redound to its credit forever. 

What economic value to the world has a nation 
which for more than forty years has concentrated 
all its energy in peaceful industry? Does anyone 
deny that Germany's great technical and commer- 
cial advancement has been a blessing in respect 
to the development of the world? Has not the 
commercial advancement in Germany had the 
effect of awaking new productive powers in all 
parts of the world and of adding new territories 
which engage in the exchange of goods with the 
civilized nations of the world? 

But it is not so clear that the great technical 
and commercial advancement of Germany has 
been a blessing in the development of the world. 
As far as England and the United States are 
concerned, she may have started all sorts of 
new lines in commerce and taught more nations 



222 The Real Truth About Germany 

of savages to buy European goods ; but it has all 
been done to benefit Germany, and, as far as 
she has had the power, in her own territories 
and colonies, she has done her best to exclude 
British products, and in other countries, espe- 
cially in the British Islands, she has done her 
best to ruin English manufacturers by under- 
selling. She has done more harm to English 
manufacturers than any country in the world. 
If German manufacturers are ruined by the war, 
or excluded from British possessions, the trade 
of Great Britain would leap up by tens of millions. 
And if in addition to the disappearance of Ger- 
man manufacturers from the market, the German 
shipping business is killed. Great Britain and 
the United States will benefit almost beyond the 
dreams of avarice. Has not the writer of this 
paragraph thought of that? 

Since the founding of the new German Empire 
German foreign trade has increased from five and 
one half to approximately twenty billion marks. 
Germany has become the best customer of a great 
number of countries. Not only has the German 
consumption of provisions and luxuries increased 
in an unusual degree, also that of meat, tropical 
fruits, sugar, tobacco, and colonial products, but 
above all else that of raw materials, such as coal, 
iron, copper and other metals, cotton, petroleum, 
wool, skins, etc. Germany furnished a market for 
articles of manufacture also, for American machin- 
ery, English wool, French luxury articles, etc. 
One is absolutely wrong in the belief that the 



Trade between Germany and U. S. 223 

competition of German industry in the world 
market has been detrimental to other commercial 
nations. Legitimate competition increased the 
business of all concerned. 

I have no doubt that the figures given of the 
increase of German foreign trade since the found- 
ing of the new empire are substantially accurate ; 
but, when he talks of Germany being the best 
customer of a great number of countries, he 
omits to emphasize the fact that with the ex- 
ception of French luxury articles and American 
machinery, nearly every German import which 
he mentions in this paragraph is either of raw 
materials or something which Germany cannot 
produce. If England, for instance, ceased to sell 
Germany coal, of which she ought not to sell her 
a single ton, what would England^s exports to 
Germany look like? — especially if raw wool were 
also deducted, and reserved for manufacture by 
Yorkshire mills. 

The competition of German industry may not 
have been detrimental to some nations, but to 
England it has been homicidal, and if the war 
should end, as we hope and believe, in the de- 
struction of the German power, the putting back 
German manufacture, commerce, and shipping 
for half a century will be worth any sum of 
money which the war costs to England. 

The United States of America has reaped especial 
profit from Germany's flourishing commercial con- 
ditions. Germany purchases more from the United 
States of America than from any other country of 



224 The Real Truth About Germany 

the world. Germany buys annually from the United 
States of America approximately $170,000,000 
worth of cotton, $75,000,000 worth of copper, 
$60,000,000 worth of wheat, $40,000,000 animal 
fat, $20,000,000 mineral oil and the same amount 
of vegetable oil. In 1890 the import and export 
trade between Germany and the United States 
mounted to only $100,000,000, in 1913 to about 
$610,000,000. Germany to-day imports from the 
United States goods to the value of $430,000,000, 
while she exports to the United States nearly 
$180,000,000 worth. No nation therefore can 
judge as well as the United States what German 
commerce means to the world. 

What profit does the United States reap from 
Germany's flourishing condition? If she ex- 
ported thirty-six millions* worth of manufactures 
to Germany, instead of Germany exporting them 
to her, and imported the eighty-six millions* 
worth of raw materials from Germany instead 
of exporting them to Germany, the American 
nation would be under an obligation to Germany. 
As it is the boot is on the other leg. 

If England is supplying her own wants and 
those of her Colonies, and a vastly increased 
proportion of the neutral markets, instead of 
letting Germany do it, she can take all these raw 
materials from the United States, and more into 
the bargain. 

In what condition are the finances of Germany? 
In this field our opponents will be obliged to 



Trade between Germany and U. S. 225 

change their views. In 19 12 Germany's national 
debt was about fourteen marks per capita lower 
than England's. The public debt of France per 
capita was far more than double that of Ger- 
many. Germany, however, has large national 
assets which offset its liabilities. For example, 
the stocks of the Prussian railways alone exceed 
by far the aggregate amount of the Prussian debt, 
the income of the railways alone is essentially 
greater than the amount which the interest and 
amortization of the entire state debt demand. 

If Germany's national debt is fourteen shillings 
per head lower than England's, assuming that it 
is, and only half that of France, assuming that it 
is, the reason is on the surface. Germany 
exacted two hundred millions from France as 
a war indemnity, and Great Britain, instead of 
exacting a war indemnity from the Boers, actually 
gave them money to enable them to get over the 
effects of the war. Besides, in the last ten years 
Germany's debt has been increasing and ours 
decreasing. 

Great Britain's railway stocks, when they are 
added together, present a formidable amount, 
and we regard them with suspicion, instead of 
supporting them as the Prussians support their 
railway stocks. 

The war, which according to the French concep- 
tion was destined to bring about the financial 
and commercial ruin of Germany, has brought 
forth the astonishing result that the famous French 

IS 



226 The Real Truth About Germany 

money market was the first to fail in this crisis. 
As early as July 25th, before the rejection of the 
Austrian Ultimatum by Servia had been made 
known, the offer of 3 per cent, redeemable French 
notes to the French exchange was so great that 
the Chambre Syndicale des Agents de Change, 
in the interest of the public, prohibited the quota- 
tion of a lower rate than 78 per cent., while bids 
of 74 per cent, had already been submitted. Sale 
in blank was absolutely forbidden, and in the 
coulisse business was at a standstill. A few days 
later, the July liquidation, in the official market 
as well as in the coulisse, was postponed until the 
end of August, which action proved the necessity 
of a period of grace. On July 31st the French 
savings banks, at the command of the government, 
suspended daily payments and paid out sums to 
the amount of 50 francs, fourteen days' notice 
being necessary. 

That the war did not bring about the financial 
and commercial ruin of Germany directly it was 
declared is due to the fact that Germany knew 
that it was going to be declared, and did not 
declare it until she had rigged the money market 
by making every arrangement she could to 
conserve her own position, and sending agents 
with enormous sums of money — it is rumored 
four millions for England and two for France — 
to London and Paris to create such slumps that 
the London Stock Exchange and the Paris Bourse 
should break. And broken they would have been 



Trade between Germany and U. S. 227 

if the plot had not been discovered. Paris led 
the way in meeting the crisis by prohibiting the 
sale of the French " rentes, " which correspond 
to our Consols, below a certain price, and by 
only allowing sums up to fifty francs to be drawn 
from the savings banks, and that with a fort- 
night's notice. 

The London money market, too, has hardly 
stood the war test. On July 30th, the Bank of 
England was obliged to raise its rate of discount 
from 3 to 4 per cent., several days later to 8 per 
cent., and again after a few days to the incredible 
rate of 10 per cent. In contrast to this, the 
President of the German Reichsbank was able on 
the 1st of August to declare that the directorate, 
because of the strength of the Reichsbank and 
the solid constitution of the German money market, 
did not consider it necessary to follow England's 
example. The German Reichsbank has therefore 
not exceeded the rate of 6 per cent. Worse yet 
was the fact that England on August 26. was 
obliged to require grace on exchange and France 
on August 3d grace on its accounts-current and 
Lombard loans. 

London, some days later, put the bank rate 
up to 10 per cent., and closed its Stock Exchange 
on account of the dumping of foreign shares on 
the London market. The wisdom of this was 
shown by the fact that the situation was saved, 
and the rate reduced in a few days to five per 
cent. — which our author takes care not to men- 



228 The Real Truth About Germany 

tion. There were two reasons why Germany did 
not have to make count ermoves of the same 
magnitude. It knew that the crash was coming, 
having engineered it, and it did not have to 
meet a rush of sales of shares from other coun- 
tries, because other countries were afraid to sell 
their shares on the Berlin Bourse, for fear that 
the German purchasers would default. 

Although along with England and France, also 
Russia, Austria, Italy, Belgium, and other nations 
required temporary credits, Germany to date has 
not deemed it necessary to ask for time in meeting 
its obligations. Savings banks, other banks, and 
financial institutions are meeting all demands 
without restriction. The fact that the English 
money market, which up to the present time has 
been considered the financial center of inter- 
national trade, has failed, will bring many a serious 
thought to all commercial men interested in the 
world market. 

In other words, as Germany could not be 
trusted to pay for what it bought, there was not 
the same rush to sell shares there; and as the 
whole financial situation had been carefully 
arranged, savings banks and other banks and 
financial institutions were ready. The English 
money market did not fail; it simply closed to 
prevent any more members of its Stock Exchange 
being hammered owing to the failure of foreign 
clients to pay up, and to prevent the leading 
shares being wrecked by professional stumpers 



Trade between Germany and U. S. 229 

with the resources of a hostile nation behind 
them. To compare the real situations of the 
English and German money markets, one has 
only to contrast the way in which the war loans 
are being subscribed. In England as fast as an 
instalment is put on the market, it is subscribed 
three times over. The German loan appeared 
to be in danger of failure, because other nations 
would not look at it, in fact Germany openly 
confessed that she would get no financial assist- 
ance from neutrals. The impassioned appeals 
of the Press for Germans to bring out their sav- 
ings seem to be falling on deaf ears. At first its 
chief chance of a successful flotation seemed to 
lie in German-American bankers putting their 
patriotism to the land of their extraction before 
their pockets. 

German commerce has doubtless been, tempo- 
rarily injured by the war, but the esprit de corps 
and organization which animate the German 
nation are not only a firm foundation for German 
commerce, but also a strong support for the further 
development of the commerce and trade of the 
entire civilized world, if, as we hope, peace soon 
is reestablished. 

It would not be too much to say that German 
overseas commerce, with the exception of some 
peddling with Scandinavia, has ceased to exist. 
If Germany is beaten in the war, she will have 
to begin again from the very beginning her 
shipping business and all trade outside the 
borders of Germany. 



FOREWORD TO CHAPTER XI 

By the Right Hon. Winston Churchill in his great Recruiting 
Speech of September nth: 

**By one of those dispensations of Providence, which appeals so 
strongly to the German Emperor — (laughter) — the nose of the 
bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe with- 
out letting go. (Laughter and cheers.) We have been successful 
in maintaining naval control thus far in the struggle, and there are 
also sound reasons for believing, that as it progresses the chances 
in our favor will not diminish but increase. In the next twelve 
months the number of great ships that will be completed for this 
country is more than double the number which will be completed 
for Germany — (cheers) — and the number of cruisers three or four 
times as great. (Cheers.) Therefore, I think I am on solid 
ground when I come here to-night and say that you may count 
upon the naval supremacy of this country being effectively main- 
tained as against the German Power for as long as you wish. 
(Cheers.) . . . 

" I was reading in the newspaper the other day that the German 
Emperor made a speech to some of his regiments, in which he urged 
them to concentrate their attention upon what he was pleased to 
call 'French's contemptible little Army.' (Laughter.) Well, 
they are concentrating their attention upon it — (laughter and 
cheers) — and that Army, which has been fighting with such extra- 
ordinary prowess, which has revived in a fortnight of adverse 
actions the ancient fame and glory of our arms upon the Con- 
tinent — (cheers)— and which to-night, after a long, protracted 
harassed, unbroken, and undaunted rearguard action — the hardest 
trial to which troops can be exposed — is advancing in spite of the 
loss of one-fifth of its numbers, and driving its enemies before it — 
that Army must be reinforced and backed and supported and 
increased and enlarged in numbers and in power by every means 
and every method that every one of us can employ. 

230 



Foreword to Chapter XI 231 

"There is no reason why, if you set yourselves to it — I have not 
come here to make a speech of words, but to point out to you the 
necessary and obvious things which you can do — there is no doubt 
that, if you set yourselves to it, the Army which is now fighting 
so valiantly on your behalf and our Allies can be raised from its 
present position to 250,000 of the finest professional soldiers in 
the world, and that in the new year something like 500,000 men, 
and from that again, when the early summer begins in 19 15, to 
the full figure of twenty-five Army Corps fighting in line together. 
The vast population of these islands, and all the Empire, is 
pressing forward to serve, its wealth is placed at your disposal; 
the Navy opens the way for the passage of men and everything 
necessary for the equipment of our forces. Why should we hesi- 
tate when here is the sure and certain path to ending this war in 
the way we mean it to end? (Cheers.) 

"There is little doubt that an Army so formed will, in quality 
and character, in native energy, in the comprehension which each 
individual has of the cause for which he is fighting, exceed in merit 
any army in the world. We have only to have a chance of even 
numbers, or anything approaching even numbers, to demonstrate 
the superiority of free-thinking active citizens over the docile 
sheep who serve the ferocious ambitions of drastic kings. (Cheers.) 
Our enemies are now at the point which we have reached fully 
extended. On every front of the enormous field of conflict the 
pressure upon them is such that all their resources are deployed. 
With every addition to the growing weight of the Russian Army 
— (cheers) — with every addition to the forces at the disposal of 
Sir John French — (cheers) — the balance must sag down increas- 
ingly against them." 



CHAPTER XI 

WHO IS TO BE VICTORIOUS? 
AN APPEAL TO AMERICAN FRIENDS 

THE American citizen who is now leaving 
Europe, which has been turned into an 
enormous military camp, may consider himself 
fortunate that he will soon be able to set foot in 
the new world where he will be enabled again to 
take up his business pursuits. In the meantime, 
old Europe is being torn asunder by a terrible 
war among its various peoples. It will make 
him happy again to greet mountain and valley, 
field and garden, which are not threatened, nor 
trampled down by armies, or covered with blood; 
again to see cities in which business and traffic 
are not brought to a standstill by calling in all 
men capable of military service ; and he may thank 
fortune that his people have been given room 
enough in which to expand and to permit them 
freely to imfold their power; that they are spared 
the great necessity of resisting the tightening 
ring of enemies in the east and west, on land and 
water, in a struggle for national existence. 

Doubtless the American who has been on the 
continent of Europe since the war began, espe- 

232 



Who Is to be Victorious ? 233 

cially in France or Belgium, will not know how 
sufficiently to thank his Creator for having re- 
moved him from all possible enemies, east or 
west, by land or sea, except the pacifically- 
minded sister-nation of Anglo-Saxons. 

His experience will have made him feel more 
than that. It will make him realize what an 
accursed thing militarism is, and it may not 
unlikely have inspired him with the determina- 
tion to throw his power also into the scale, if 
Germany, that is militarism, cannot be crushed 
without it. He will say: "One thing shall not 
be — never again shall a continent be trampled 
into a wilderness and millions of men seek each 
other's deaths, with all the inventions of modern 
science, to gratify the insensate ambition of one 
man. " To him the German Emperor is the 
modern Nero, who has been fiddling with ballet- 
music while he has been preparing to burn, not 
Rome, but all Europe. 

But the American will feel the effects of the 
fate of the old world. Even though he knows his 
own country is not directly involved, he will 
certainly realize that the great net of international 
traffic and the progress of his country are con- 
nected by many strong ties to the life and pros- 
perity of the European peoples. He will be 
affected by every victory and defeat, just as by 
the sun and rain in his own country. He will 
doubtless remember that of all European countries, 
Germany is the best customer of the United States, 
from which she purchases yearly over one billion 



234 The Real Truth About Germany 

marks of cotton, food, metal, and technical pro- 
ducts. If Germany is economically ruined, which 
is the wish of Russia, France, and England, and 
all allied friends of wretched Servia, it would mean 
the loss of a heavy buyer to America, and thereby 
cause a serious loss to America which could not 
easily be made good. It would be a great blow 
to American export trade, of which Germany 
handles not less than 14 per cent, yearly. 

It is certain that the American will feel the 
effects of the war in which Europe and Asia are 
engaged. It is certain that he will realize how 
every great commercial interest in his country 
is connected with Europe ; that he will be affected 
by every victory and defeat. But if the Germans 
imagine that he will be affected in his judgment 
against militarism by remembering that they 
purchase fifty or a hundred millions a year of 
raw materials from him, they are mistaken. 
He knows that the world will want just as much 
of them whether Germany buys a dollar*s worth 
of them or not. And, in any case, he will adhere 
to his judgment with American grit and clear- 
sightedness. It would be no blow to American 
export trade, permanently; it might result in 
the United States exporting these materials not 
raw but manufactured, at a double profit; and 
if it were a blow, he would stand it, being repaid 
by the cessation of the constant menace to peace 
which is so ruinous to trade. 

The material loss is not the only feature. In 
the economic struggle in the world markets, Ameri- 



Who Is to be Victorious ? 235 

can and German commercial men have learned 
mutually to appreciate one another, to appreciate 
one another more highly than do any other two 
rivals. The time is long past when the American 
pictured the German as one of thousands, shut 
up in a room, surrounded by documents and parch- 
ments, speculating about the unknown outside 
world, and the same is true of the German's idea 
of the American — a money-hungry barbarian. 
Two nations in which so much kindred blood 
flows and which are connected by so many his- 
torical events imderstand each other better to-day 
than formerly. Above all, they have a mutual 
understanding regarding the ideal in commercial 
life: A man engaged in work not for the sake of 
the profit, but for the sake of the work he is doing ; 
one who gives all his strength to the task, and who 
works for the general welfare of the people as a 
whole, considering his position as an office and 
his wealth as an obligation, not as the final aim, 
but as a basis for the realization of higher attain- 
ments. He places the value of character and the 
development of the creative powers of man higher 
than all economic success. Two nations imited 
by such common inclinations and ideals, boldness, 
of enterprise, far-sightedness, quickness of decis- 
ion, admiration for intellectual achievements, can- 
not help being exceedingly congenial to each other. 
What concerns one to-day, concerns the other. 

However much the American may respect and 
like the German merchant and manufacturer 



236 The Real Truth About Germany 

in business, he loathes German ambitions, and 
regards Germany as the only menace to the 
Monroe Doctrine. He will not allow any regard 
with which the German's quickness as a business 
man inspires him to divert him from his distrust, 
fear, and hatred of the policy of Germany. Since 
Rheims and Louvain he regards " money-hungry 
barbarian ** as the correct definition of a German. 
The fine phrase, " what concerns one to-day, 
concerns the other, " does not to the American's 
mind suggest the United States and Germany, 
but the United States and England — the sister 
Anglo-Saxon nation, whose daughter Canada 
occupies half the North American continent. 
This wonderful book, the activities of "Count 
John Bernstorff" and the German Jews who 
own newspapers in the United States, all the 
traps of Hammann's press bureau, all the blan- 
dishments of the Kaiser, will not seduce the 
United States from the simple question which 
lies before them: Would Germany, with all 
Europe crushed into submission under its heel, 
be a good neighbor? And the answer to this is 
among ninety-nine hundredths of native-born 
Americans: No. 

Does it sound like a paradox when I say Ger- 
many's struggle concerns not only her own destiny, 
but to a considerable extent that of America? 
Does the United States consider itself entirely 
immune from the warlike complications brought 
about by the Servian murder of princes and Rus- 
sia's breach of faith? In any event, it will be dif- 



Who Is to be Victorious ? 237 

ficult for it to say: "What's Hecuba to me?'' One 
thing should be clearly understood on the shores 
of the five oceans, that the cause of this most 
terrible war does not emanate from the dark 
Balkans, or from a Russian military group, but 
from envy and hate which healthy, young, and 
striving Germany has aroused in her older rivals; 
not because this or that demand was made by one 
cabinet and refused by another, but because it 
was believed there was finally an opportunity to 
destroy the hated opponent who threatened to 
put the other Western European powers in the 
shade. 

The answer to this paragraph is that it would 
be a bad day for Germany if the United States 
did not think itself outside the quarrel. The 
United States know quite well, without Germany 
pointing it out to them, that the war was not 
brought about by the Servian murder of princes, 
or Russia's breach of faith. There is nothing to 
show that the murder of princes was Servians, 
and there is clear evidence to prove that the 
breach of faith was not Russia's. As the writer 
of this book says: "This war did not emanate 
from the dark Balkans or the Russian military 
group." But still less did it emanate from the 
" envy and hate " which " healthy, young, striving 
Germany has aroused in her older rivals." 
In spite of anything that Germany can say, it 
knows that the person who sought "an opportun- 
ity to destroy the hated opponent who threatened 
to put the other European Powers in the shade " 



238 The Real Truth About Germany 

was the German Kaiser. The Kaiser had dis- 
covered that Russia could "outbuild" his army 
— two to one. 

His whole tortuous plot for forcing war upon 
Russia before Russia had time to arm every man 
of the fighting age, and to supply him with the 
most perfect weapons, has been demonstrated 
to the complete satisfaction of every man in the 
United States who is not an Anglophobe German. 

The transparent sophistries of this book were 
discounted long before it reached America. 
It will deceive no one, and it will show everybody 
that it was written with the intent to deceive. 
Bernstorff might have written it, and it will re- 
ceive no more attention than if he had written 
it. 

And for this reason England and France put 
their strength into the service of criminal and 
brutal Servia. 

"The history of Servia is not unblotted. What history in 
the category of nations is unblotted? The first nation that 
is without sin, let her cast a stone at Servia — a nation trained 
in a horrible school. But she won her freedom with her 
tenacious valor, and she has maintained it by the same cour- 
age. If any Servians were mixed up in the assassination of 
the Grand Duke, they ought to be punished. Servia admits 
that. The Servian Government had nothing to do with it. 
Not even Austria claimed that. 

"What were the Austrian demands? She (Servia) sym- 
pathized with her fellow-countrymen in Bosnia. That was 
one of her crimes. She must do so no more. Her news- 
papers were saying nasty things about Austria. They must 
do so no longer. That is the Austrian spirit. . . . Serv- 
ian newspapers must not criticize Austria. . . . Servia said: 
'Very well, we will give orders to the newspapers that they must 



Who Is to be Victorious ? 239 

not criticize Austria in future, neither Austria, nor Hungary, 
nor anything that is theirs.' (Laughter.) Who can doubt the 
valor of Servia, when she undertook to tackle her newspaper 
editors? (Laughter.) She promised not to sympathize 
with Bosnia, promised to write no critical articles about 
Austria. She would have no public meetings at which any- 
thing unkind was said about Austria. That was not enough. 
She must dismiss from her army officers whom Austria 
should subsequently name. But these officers had just 
emerged from a war where they were adding luster to the 
Servian arms — gallant, brave, efficient. (Cheers.) I won- 
der whether it was their guilt or their efficiency that 
prompted Austria's action. Servia was to undertake in 
advance to dismiss them from the army; the names to 
be sent on subsequently. Can you name a country in the 
world that would have stood that? Supposing Austria or 
Germany had issued an ultimatum of that kind to this 
country. (Laughter.) * You must dismiss from your army 
and from your navy all those officers whom we shall sub- 
sequently name.' Well, I think I could name them now. 
Lord Kitchener (cheers) would go, Sir John French (cheers) 
would be sent about his business. General Smith -Dorrien 
(cheers) would be no more, and I am sure that Sir John 
Jellicoe (cheers) would go. (Laughter.) And there is 
another gallant old warrior who would go — Lord Roberts. 
(Cheers.) .... It was not guilt that she (Austria) was 
after, but capacity." — Mr. Lloyd George in his Queen's 
Hall speech. 

To the United States, Servia, which is in many 
ways only just emerging from the primitive con- 
dition, and therefore has not learned all the 
civilities of civilization, is not a criminal and 
brutal nation. It is a gallant little nation, fight- 
ing for its freedom, and for the nationality of the 
ancient Serbian race. To the American mind, 
its undaunted and successful resistance of Austria 
is exactly parallel to the undaunted and success- 



240 The Real Truth About Germany 

ful resistance of Switzerland to Austria, im- 
mortalized in "William Tell." For one man, 
not a German or an Austrian, in America who 
sides with Austria, there must be a thousand who 
side with Servia. 

The following statistics will, perhaps, throw 

some light on the development of the foreign 

trade of the principal countries from 1870 to 

1913:— 

1870 1913 

(in billions of marks) 

Great Britain . . . 9,180 23,280 

France . . i. . 4,540 12,300 

Russia . . . . . 2,000 5,580 

Germany .... 4,240 20,440 

In these forty-three years, which have been 
decisive in the development of international 
economy, England, France, and Russia have not 
been able even to increase their foreign trade 
three times, while Germany and the United States 
have increased theirs five times. The trade of 
Germany and the United States has increased 
from 7.6 to 38 billion marks. If these figures 
show nothing else, they show on which side the 
American sympathy will be. 

The fact that Germany runs the United States 
closer in increase of trade than any other country, 
would not appeal to the practical American as a 
reason for sympathy; he would not allow senti- 
ment to guide him in the matter. He would say: 



Who Is to be Victorious ? 241 

" If there is any danger of this man cutting me 
out, I should like to see something happen to 
him." And if, in addition to that, the rival had 
the reputation of being a noted duelist who was 
always trying to pick quarrels, he would say: 
" Let's get a sheriff's posse and hunt him down, 
as outlaws are hunted in the mountains of 
Tennessee." 

To the American mind at the present moment 
the Kaiser is just an outlaw being hunted down 
by the sheriff's posse of Europe. And the de- 
struction of Rheims Cathedral, the most glorious 
in the world, will not diminish the impression. 

This war, provoked by Russia because of an 
outrageous desire for revenge, supported by Eng- 
land and France, has no other motive than envy 
of Germany's position in economic lite, and of her 
people, who are fighting for a place in the sun. 
*' Right or wrong, Germany must not grow." 
That is the turning point of a policy which the 
French Republic drilled into the Muscovites. 

As Americans know perfectly well that Russia 
did not provoke the war at all, but did all she 
,could to prevent it, and has never shown any 
desire for revenge against Germany for the 
humiliation of 1909, and has never shown the 
slightest envy of Germany's economic position, 
this paragraph will " leave them cold." 

The Prussian idea of Germany's place in the 
sun, according to the American definition, con- 
sists of all the world except the United States 

16 



242 The Real Truth About Germany 

and Russia. Instead of Russia proclaiming that 
"Right or wrong, Germany must not grow," 
it is Prussia proclaiming that " Right or wrong, 
Germany must grow." 

Russia did not need to have any policy drilled 
into her by the French Republic. It is because 
she foresaw that the German Emperor aimed 
at being a Napoleon, and was making preparations 
to bring all Europe to his feet, that she took upon 
herself the responsibility of " shaking the loud 
spoiler down." 

Let us consider the adversaries of Germany. 
Russia, the classic land of power and terrible 
exploitation of the people for the benefit of a 
degenerated aristocracy. 

The people of the United States is well aware 
of the genuine desire of the present Czar to be 
the redeemer of his people from their servitude, 
and of Europe from the servitude of war. The 
idea of a Peace Committee — of setting up Ar- 
bitration Machinery — at The Hague was his, 
and if he has been creating and perfecting a 
gigantic army, it has only been to carry out the 
military axiom " si vis pacem para bellum " — 
because Germany has declared repeatedly that 
she would not agree to any limitation of arma- 
ments, and declared by the pens of her Bern- 
hardis that she aimed at the Hegemony of Europe, 
and meant to take it whenever she considered 
the opportunity to have arrived — as in this year 
1914. 

In the same way it was this Czar who gave his 



Who Is to be Victorious ? 243 

people the Duma, this Czar who has given back 
their national life and autonomy to the Poles. 
It is the German people which is being exploited 
for a degenerate aristocracy, not the Russian, 
and this degeneracy takes the form of a callous- 
ness to the sufferings of Europe and a readiness 
to sacrifice life — the lives of millions — beyond 
the diseased imagination of the worst of the 
Roman Emperors. 

France, a type of a nation in v^^hich there is not 
even enough enterprise to increase the productive- 
ness of the country. 

Against France for not warring against Amer- 
ican commercial supremacy Americans will feel 
no grudge. Paris is their ideal of cultured repose. 
There is a saying that the good American when 
he dies hopes to go to Paris. 

Of all the paradoxical reasons which could be 
urged for the United States siding against France 
the one given here seems to be the most "damned 
foolish. " 

England, which has so long felt its glory van- 
ishing and in the meantime has remained far 
behind its younger rival in financial and economic 
equipment. 

And Americans are invited to condemn Eng- 
land because she has left off going to war for 
glory, and is far behind Germany in waging an 
economic war against the commerce of the United 
States. Does the German take the American 



244 The Real Truth About Germany 

for a fellow-burglar who will be drawn into 
partnership with him because he points out that 
England and France are good fat cribs to be 
cracked, and that Russia is their enemy, the 
policeman? It is England's coming forward as a 
special constable which has interfered with his 
present burglary. 

One can easily imagine the feelings of these 
peoples when they observe the rapid and success- 
ful growth of Germany, and one wonders if these 
same feelings will not one day be directed against 
the youthful North American giant. 

It is a matter of common knowledge that these 
are precisely the feelings of Germany at the 
present moment against the youthful North 
American giant, whose Monroe Doctrine blocks 
the way to her nefarious designs upon South 
America. If there were no United States, she 
would very quickly pick a quarrel with Brazil, 
which would entail the cession of that portion of 
the country in which the three million Germans 
have settled. The rapid and successful growth 
of the United States is not a thing of yesterday, 
like Germany's; so England, France, and Russia 
have had plenty of time to make up their minds 
about the youthful giant. On the other hand, it 
had always been an axiom of the Pan-Germans, 
which they have made no attempt to conceal, 
that when Germany had made herself mistress 
of Europe, she would call the United States to 
account — in other words, pick a quarrel with 
them, reduce them to impotence, and tear the 



Who Is to be Victorious ? 245 

Monroe Doctrine up like a scrap of paper. And 
the United States know perfectly well that it 
would be their turn next if Germany won in the 
present war. 

In this war it shall be decided which is the 
stronger; the organized inertia of the tired and 
envious, or the unfolding of power in the service 
of a strong and sacrificing life. 

These phrases are very fine-sounding, and 
their truth will be recognized. If there is any 
nation of those which are at war which could be 
accused of " the organized inertia of the tired 
and envious, " it is Austria. And it was the 
unfolding of power in the service of a strong and 
sacrificing life by Russia which made Germany 
determine to plunge Europe into war this summer, 
Servia, too, deserves the compliment. And so, 
in spite of all the callous wickedness which she 
has shown in deluging Europe with blood to 
secure the triumph of her militarism, does 
Germany. 

Germany will lose all because she has forced 
a number of nations which lived for peace to 
unfold power for her destruction. She will lose 
because she has designed to establish a hell on 
earth if she won. She will lose because she has 
allied herself with "the organized inertia of 
tired and envious*' Austria. She will lose 
because pride comes before a fall. She will 
lose because the world will be the better for her 
fall. And if she cannot be made to lose in any 



246 The Real Truth About Germany 

other way, the United States will join her enemies 
to secure the triumph of the right. 

To know that we have American friendship in 
this struggle will mean a great moral support for 
us in the coming trying days, for we know that 
the country of George Washington and Abraham 
Lincoln places itself only on the side of a just 
cause and one worthy of humanity's blessing. 

Germany is right. The United States will 
place themselves on the side of a just cause and 
one worthy of humanity's blessing. It is not 
difficult to imagine the lofty moral denunciation 
with which George Washington would have 
greeted the Kaiser's plot against mankind, and 
the scorn which Abraham Lincoln would have 
poured on " Truth about Germany. " What 
would he have said? 

What will President Wilson have to say to the 
Kaiser's letting War loose on Art at Rheims? 



AFTERMATH 

HOW AMERICANS AND GERMANS LOVE EACH OTHER 
SINCE THE BURNING OF RHEIMS CATHEDRAL 

The New York Tribune: 

"Germany continues to violate Humanity as well as the Rules 
of War." 

"The crime of battering this noble and venerable edifice is left 
to a nation boasting that its mission is to impose its culture on 
the rest of the world, and which describes the present war as a 
war on its part for the protection of Western European civiliza- 
tion against the semi-barbarous Muscovite. " 

"In breaking the rules of war Germany is encouraging other 
nations to do likewise, but the most crushing rebuke to Germany's 
pretensions that she is conducting a war in defense of culture is 
the fact that the public opinion of the world is not ready to believe 
that France and Great Britain would ever do in Cologne and 
Munich what Germany has done in Louvain. " 

"We shall doubtless hear more of the Kaiser's bleeding heart, 
but no banalities of that sort can blind us to what now looks like 
the congenital insensitiveness of the German nature to the obliga- 
tions of civilized man." 

The New York World: 

"If the reports are true Prussian militarism has surpassed in 
vandalism the record of centuries. Since the ruin of the Parthe- 
non no such deed has affronted the world. " 

The New York Times: 

Finally, in the New York Times, the venerable Dr. Charles 
W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard University, arraigns 

247 



248 The Real Truth About Germany 

German militarism as the "fundamental trouble with civiliza- 
tion, " and reminds the world that history has never ceased to call 
the destroyers of the Alexandria Library "fanatics and bar- 
barians. " 

The New York Sun: 

"Louvain and Rheims! Even Attila, King of the Huns and 
the Scourge of God, spared the historic city of Troyes and its 
treasures of art when Troyes fell within the area of his military 
operations. " 

"It is hard to escape from the conclusion that the cathedral 
was made a target in a wanton spirit of destruction. " 

GERMAN PAPERS PUBLISHED IN AMERICA 

From the Daily Telegraph New York Correspondent: 
"German papers printed here roundly abuse Americans for 
their attitude regarding Rheims, and the Staats Zeitung, owned 
by Hermann Ridder, who claims personal friendship with the 
Kaiser, is particularly bitter. ' The daily lamentations here over 
the atrocities and barbarities by Germans are dictated by English 
hypocrisy,' says the Staats Zeitung. ' We advise Americans first 
to put their own house in order before they, as hypocritical de- 
votees of England, dare to criticize the barbarisms and lack of 
freedom of other nations.' Ridder concludes by protesting that 
*the graft atrocities in the public life of the United States, from 
railroad corporations to the police forces,' are as culpable and 
hateful as any of the atrocities laid at the doors of the German 
invaders. " 



APPENDIX 
GREAT BRITAIN AND THE WAR 



249 



APPENDIX 
GREAT BRITAIN AND THE WAR^ 

By A. Maurice Low, M.A. 
Author of The American People, a Study in National Psychology. 

In a recent interview given by Count von Bern- 
storff, the German Ambassador, he based his defense 
of Germany^s position upon these assertions: — 

1. That Russia provoked the war. 

2. That had Russia not been certain of the support 
of Great Britain she would not have made war upon 
Austria. 

3. That, Austria having been forced into war, Ger- 
many was compelled by her treaty engagements to 
come to the support of her ally. 

4. That England, because of her jealousy and 
enmity of Germany, encouraged both Russia and 
France to make war on Austria and Germany, although 
England had no cause to be jealous of Germany. 

^ Reprinted, in response to many requests, from the New York 
Herald, of September 21, 1914. 

The discussion of the so-called German "peace proposals" 
has since been added. 

251 



252 The Real Truth About Germany 

Having thus proved to his own satisfaction that 
Germany is the helpless victim of British duplicity 
and Russian brutality and French malignity, Count 
Bernstorff wonders why the preponderating sympathy 
of America is with England and her Allies and against 
Germany and Austria. 

DOCUMENTS TELL THE STORY 

I shall not attempt to answer the first assertion, 
because it is unnecessary. Everyone who has read 
the British and German official diplomatic correspond- 
ence knows the truth. To that correspondence Count 
Bernstorff can add nothing and from it I can subtract 
nothing. That correspondence requires neither ex- 
planation nor elucidation. It shows precisely what 
the British Government did in its attempts to prevent 
war; it shows what Count Bernstorff *s sovereign 
failed to do to curb his ally. If that correspondence 
does not convince the reader certainly nothing that 
Count Bernstorff can say will alter his opinion; 
nothing that I might write will influence any person's 
calm judgment. Those telegrams that passed be- 
tween ministers and ambassadors in the fateful days 
of July are now history, and to the judgment of history 
they may be safely left. 

Count Bernstorff asserts that if Russia had not been 
certain of the support of England she would not have 
forced war upon Austria. The iu quoque is the weak- 
est form of argument. Nevertheless I feel justified 
in asking if Austria had not felt absolutely certain of 
the support of Germany would she have challenged 
Russia? The answer is obvious. Single handed 
Austria is no match for Russia. Count Bernstorff 



Appendix 253 

knows that; the professional advisers of the Austrian 
Emperor knew it. The military resources of Russia 
are so incomparably superior to those of Austria that 
only a desperate gambler, willing to put his crown 
on the table as the stakes, would have risked the throw 
of the cards. And Austria did not have a free hand. 
She was hampered on her flank by Servia, a little 
nation, but so powerful that Austria 's ill-starred cam- 
paign against her has collapsed. Austria could not 
disguise the menace of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She 
had violated the treaty of Berlin when she absorbed 
them into her empire in pursuance of her " civilizing 
mission," and their people looked for the day when 
they might throw off the Austrian yoke. 

But I do not rely on assertion. For ten days prior 
to July 31st Sir Edward Grey, the British Secretary 
of State for Foreign Affairs, had labored day and night 
to prevent war. On that day he sent a telegram to 
Sir Edward Goschen, the British Ambassador in Berlin, 
expressing the hope that the conversations then pro- 
ceeding between Austria and Russia would lead to a 
satisfactory result. The stumbling block hitherto, he 
explained, had been Austrian mistrust of Servian 
assurances and Russian mistrust of Austrian inten- 
tions with regard to the independence and integrity of 
Servia. In order to overcome these suspicions Sir 
Edward Grey suggested Germany might sound Vienna 
and he would agree to sound St. Petersburg whether 
it would be possible for the four disinterested Powers 
— Germany, Italy, France, and Great Britain — to offer 
to Austria that she should obtain full satisfaction of 
her demands on Servia, provided they did not impair 
Servian sovereignty and Servian integrity, Austria 
already having declared her willingness to respect 



254 The Real Truth About Germany 

them; and Russia would be informed that the four 
disinterested Powers would undertake to prevent 
Austrian demands going the length of impairing 
Servian sovereignty and integrity, and he added : — 

" I said to the German Ambassador this morning 
that if Germany could get any reasonable proposal 
put forward which made it clear that Germany and 
Austria were striving to preserve European peace, and 
that Russia and France would be unreasonable if they 
rejected it, I would support it at St. Petersburg and 
Paris, and go the length of saying that if Russia and 
France would not accept it His Majesty^s government 
would have nothing more to do with the consequences ; 
but otherwise I told the German Ambassador that if 
France became involved we should be drawn in." 

In the light of the above can any honest man say that 
Russia felt certain of the support of Great Britain? 
As a matter of fact, neither Russia nor France was 
sure of what Great Britain would do, and her course 
was to be governed solely by whether they were " rea- 
sonable." What Sir Edward Grey wanted above and 
beyond everything else was to preserve the peace of 
Europe, and to accomplish that, to save the world from 
the horrors it is now experiencing, he was willing to 
throw the great influence of England on the side of 
Germany and Austria if they were sincerely working 
for peace and to leave France and Russia to their fate 
if they were unreasonable and determined to provoke 
war. 

Further confirmation, if any is needed, that neither 
France nor Russia knew what England would do and 
that she did not declare her position until circumstances 
forced her to take up arms is to be found. On that same 
day, July 31st, the French Ambassador in London was 



Appendix 255 

trying to induce British support of France in case she 
was attacked by Germany and was urging Sir Edward 
Grey to promise to come to the assistance of France. 
But Sir Edward Grey would make no promise. There 
were circumstances, he explained, that might prevent 
England from remaining neutral and force her into the 
war as the ally of France, but he could enter into no 
engagement. On August ist the British Ambassador 
in Vienna telegraphed to Sir Edward Grey, "There is 
great anxiety to know what England will do." Aus- 
trian anxiety was shared by Russia. Thus as late as 
the first of August neither of Britain's subsequent 
Allies, Russia and France, nor one of her soon to be 
foes, Austria, knew what England would do. 

And yet Count Bernstorff says the war would not 
have happened had not Russia been certain of the 
support of England. 

What about Germany? Did she feel certain what 
England would do? The correspondence is of pe- 
culiar interest as tending to controvert the German 
Ambassador's assertion that Germany was dragged 
into war. From the beginning of the critical relations 
between Austria and Russia, owing to the dispatch of 
the Austrian ultimatum to Servia, Sir Edward Grey 
had regarded the matter as a quarrel between Austria 
and Servia in which the other European Powers were 
not concerned. He knew, of course, of the Austro- 
German alliance, as he knew of the Franco-Russian 
alliance, but he saw no reason why those alliances 
should be invoked. Germany and France he con- 
sidered "disinterested" Powers and placed them in 
the same category as Italy, also the ally of Germany 
and Austria, and England, neither the ally of Russia 
or France, but who might be compelled to support 



256 The Real Truth About Germany 

France and Russia under certain circumstances. If 
Russia and Austria must fight, Sir Edward Grey held, 
it was bad enough, but that was better than to see the 
whole of Europe at war. Germany was not bound to 
come to the support of Austria unless she was deter- 
mined to force France into the war; France need not 
go to the assistance of Russia unless she was looking 
for a casus belli against Germany. 

France had joined with England in using her influ- 
ence with Russia to keep the peace. France had given 
no provocation to Germany. On July 29th Sir Edward 
Goschen telegraphed to Sir Edward Grey he had been 
invited that evening to call upon the Chancellor, who 
said that if Austria was attacked by Russia Germany 
would be compelled to come to her assistance. Pro- 
vided that the neutrality of Great Britain were certain, 
every assurance would be given to the British Govern- 
ment that Germany aimed at no territorial acquisition 
at the expense of France. Sir Edward Goschen asked 
what about the French colonies, but the Chancellor 
said that he "was unable to give a similar undertaking 
in that respect." 

As for Belgium — whose neutrality it will be remem- 
bered Germany had guaranteed — "it depended upon 
the action of France what operations Germany might 
be forced to enter upon in Belgium, but when the war 
was over Belgium's integrity would be respected if she 
had not sided against Germany." As a further bid 
for English neutrality the Chancellor added, with 
almost childlike simplicity, as if vague promises in 
the future counted for anything in an emergency so 
great, "he had in mind a general neutrality agreement 
between England and Germany, though of course it 
was at the present moment too early to discuss detailsi 



Appendix 257 

and an assurance of British neutrality in the conflict 
which the present crisis might produce would enable 
him to look forward to the realization of his desire." 

And Count von Bernstorff would ask the American 
people to believe that Germany was trying to avoid 
war with France. 

Sir Edward Grey's reply was spirited and to the 
point. There is nothing finer in the entire corre- 
spondence. It exhibits the Secretary of State indig- 
nant at the offer of a bribe, but still trying to preserve 
peace and showing Germany how that could be done. 

Sir Edward telegraphed the next day to the British 
Ambassador : — 

" His Majesty's government cannot for a moment 
entertain the Chancellor's proposal that they should 
bind themselves to neutrality on such terms. 

" What he asks us is in effect to engage to stand by 
while French colonies are taken and France is beaten, 
so long as Germany does not take French territory 
as distinct from the colonies. 

" From a material point of view such a proposal is 
unacceptable, for France, without further territory 
in Europe being taken from her, could be so crushed 
as to lose her position as a great Power and become 
subordinate to German policy. 

" Altogether apart from that, it would be a disgrace 
for us to make this bargain with Germany at the 
expense of France, a disgrace from which the good 
name of this country would never recover. 

" The Chancellor also in effect asks us to bargain 

away whatever obligation of interest we have as 

regards the neutrality of Belgium. We could not 

entertain that bargain, either." 

Having rejected the bribe offered by Germany, 
17 



258 The Real Truth About Germany 

having with dignity and restraint repudiated the sug- 
gestion that Great Britain could remain passive 
while France was being crushed to satisfy the over- 
weening ambition of Germany, Sir Edward Grey still 
showed that the one thing of all others he desired was 
peace, and he pointed out the way by which that object 
might be attained. He instructed his Ambassador 
to say to the Chancellor : — 

" One way of maintaining good relations between 
England and Germany is that they should continue 
to work together to preserve the peace of Europe. If 
we succeed in this object the mutual relations of 
Germany and England will, I believe, be, ipse facto, 
improved and strengthened. For that object His 
Majesty's government will work in that way with all 
sincerity and good will. " 

Is this the language or the act of a man trying to 
entice Russia into making war on Germany? 

Sir Edward Grey was to give still further proof of 
his sincerity and his almost fanatical attachment to 
the cause of peace. In that same despatch to Sir 
Edward Goschen he continued :: — 

" And I will say this : — If the peace of Europe can 
be preserved and the present crisis safely passed my 
own endeavor will be to promote some arrangement 
to which Germany could be a party, by which she could 
be assured that no aggressive or hostile policy would 
be pursued against her or her allies by France, Russia, 
and ourselves, jointly or separately." 

Could anything be more straightforward, more bind- 
ing, than this voluntary pledge? For years Germany 
has told the world that she was not seeking war, that 
her enormous army and her powerful navy, rapidly 
rivalling that of Great Britain, were safeguards of 



Appendix 259 

peace and to prevent France and Russia from attack- 
ing her. Sir Edward Grey bound himself to bring 
about an arrangement by which Germany would be 
assured she need have no fear of the hostility of 
France, Russia, or Great Britain. Had Germany been 
sincere in her protestations that she was ready to 
defend herself, but reluctant to provoke her neighbors, 
she would eagerly have accepted Sir Edward Grey*s 
offer, but, as Sir Edward Goschen reported, the 
Chancellor received the communication " without 
comment. " 

And Count von Bernstorff imposes upon American 
intelligence by trying to have it believed that Great 
Britain was persuading Russia to go to war. 

GERMANY BEGAN THE WAR 

Count von Bernstorff asserts that Germany did not 
begin the war. It is not material who strikes the 
first blow when two men are determined to quarrel, 
but for the vindication of history the facts should not 
be garbled. On August 2d, before Russia, France, or 
Great Britain had committed a single act of hostility 
against Germany, she violated the neutrality of the 
Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. On the preceding day 
Sir Edward Grey had telegraphed Sir Edward Goschen 
that the authorities at Hamburg had forcibly detained 
British merchant ships, and he requested that the 
German Government send immediate orders for the 
release of the vessels, as the effect on public opinion 
would be deplorable unless that was done. The 
British Government, he added, was most anxious to 
avoid any incident of an aggressive nature, and he 
hoped the German Government would be equally care- 



26o The Real Truth About Germany 

ful not to take any step which would make the situa- 
tion impossible. These vessels were released the 
next day after their cargoes had been forcibly seized, 
an act that Sir Edward Grey protested against. 

On August 3d the German Government sent an ulti- 
matum to Belgium demanding free passage for her 
troops and threatening to use force if the request was 
refused. Sir Edward Grey protested against Ger- 
many violating Belgian neutrality, which Germany, 
in common with England, had guaranteed. On 
August 4th the German Government informed the 
Belgian Government that it would enter Belgium, "in 
view of the French menaces. " For the first time 
Germany used the fear of France as a pretext for war. 
Hitherto she had pretended Russia was a menace; 
now she suddenly discovered it was France that 
threatened. On that same day Sir Edward Grey 
telegraphed to Sir Edward Goschen that he continued 
to receive numerous complaints from British firms of 
the detention of their ships at Hamburg, Cuxhaven, 
and other German ports. This action, Sir Edward 
declared, was totally unjustifiable and in direct con- 
travention of international law and of the assurances 
given by the Imperial Chancellor. 

Thus Germany had thrice offended against the law 
of nations and the moral law. She had violated the 
neutrality of Luxemburg, whose neutrality she had 
guaranteed. She had violated the neutrality of 
Belgium, whose neutrality she had agreed to respect. 
She had seized British vessels and their cargoes while 
Great Britain and Germany were still at peace. 

Count von Bernstorff, speaking as German Ambas- 
sador to the United States, asserts that Germany did 
not strike the first blow. 



Appendix 261 

Having thus exposed a few of the errors into which 
the German Ambassador has been unconsciously 
betrayed in dealing with the political phases of this 
wanton war, attention may be usefully called to some 
of His Excellency 's lapses when he discusses the 
psychology of American public sentiment. He mourn- 
fully recognizes the fact that American sentiment 
is hostile to Germany and explains it by saying that 
almost immediately after the declaration of hostilities 
England cut the German transatlantic cable, so that 
the United States should be misinformed as to the 
truth and only news passing through London and 
Paris could reach America. 

This is childish. The cable was cut as a military 
measure, as Count von Bernstorff very well knows, 
and for no other reason. The American people have 
the news and the truth; they get the news in their 
newspapers and the truth they can find by reading the 
German and British White Papers, which have been 
published in this country. They have heard the truth 
about the destruction of Louvain, the slaughter of 
women and children in Antwerp, the scattering of 
mines in the North Sea and the tribute exacted from 
Brussels and Liege in defiance of the humane spirit 
of the age. The German Ambassador ought not to 
regret that the cutting of the cable has made it difiicult 
for news to reach America ; rather he ought to pray 
that other cables may be quickly cut, so that no further 
knowledge of German atrocities can reach the United 
States. 

Count von Bernstorff professes not to be able to 
understand English enmity and cannot find any justi- 
fication for it, although he acknowledges England has 
long been jealous of Germany 's increasing prosperity 



2(>2 The Real Truth About Germany 

and her growing navy. It is curious what tricks mem- 
ory plays. For years Germany— not her people or 
individuals, but her officials and governing classes- 
has shown its dislike of England and offensively 
rattled the sabre in the sound of English ears. There 
was the Kaiser's telegram to Kruger, for instance ; the 
obscene insults to the late Queen during the Boer War, 
the Kaiser's sneers and slurs at King Edward, the 
crisis precipitated over Agadir, and the revenge he took 
in making France dismiss Delcasse. 

It was these things and hundreds of others that 
made it so difficult for the well-wishers and friends of 
Germany in England — and I have no apology to make 
for counting myself as one of them — to use their 
influence, much or little as the case might be, to 
bring about better relations with Germany. There 
is no military party in England. England, with the 
sole exception of the United States, is the one great 
Power that is not subordinate to the military. No 
Englishman wanted to go to war with Germany. No 
Englishman could see that there was anything to be 
gained by war with Germany. Time after time Ger- 
many gave us provocation and we kept our temper. 
Those of us who believe that war is usually a crime, 
the most insensate act nations can commit, believed 
that the German Emperor was too sensible of his 
obligations to his people and posterity, too wise not 
to recognize the desperate risk he took in plunging 
Europe into war when the honor of his country was 
not impugned nor national safety endangered. 

The fact is the Kaiser held all too lightly the military 
power of Great Britain. He is an autocrat, a militarist, 
and therefore he cannot understand the aspirations 
and the motives of a democracy. That a country so 



Appendix 263 

powerful as Great Britain, with a world-flung Empire, 
should content itself with a standing army insignificant 
compared with the millions Germany is able to call to 
the colors ; that it should rely for its defense on volun- 
teers instead of resorting to conscription; that the 
civil and not the military power should be supreme — 
these things to the Kaiser were incongruous and were 
to be explained only on the theory that England was 
a decaying nation, that the England of the Napoleonic 
wars had lost its virility, that, engrossed in money- 
making and trade, it had become steeped in luxury 
and enjoyment and was either too cowardly or too 
indifferent to fight. And accepting that as a premise, 
it is easy to see how he reached his conclusion — 
England would not fight; England was not to be 
feared. 

Part of the Kaiser's reasoning was correct. Eng- 
land does not want to fight, but the mistake the Kaiser 
made was in believing that England would not fight. 
She will fight, as the Kaiser has learned to his cost, 
when honor is at stake and when not to fight would be, 
as Sir Edward Grey said, " a disgrace from which the 
good name of this country would never recover. " 
She might have escaped war had she been content to 
see Belgium outraged and the plighted fate of nations 
mocked and the covenants between peoples broken 
by dismissing a treaty as "only a scrap of paper"; 
she could have imitated the example of Italy and found 
a pretext for deserting her allies; she might have 
bought immunity by accepting the insincere promises 
of Germany and claiming she had given greater assist- 
ance to France through her diplomacy than she could 
render by force of arms. These things England 
might have done. These things England would have 



264 The Real Truth About Germany- 
done if the Kaiser*s estimate of the English character 
had not been founded on false premises. But these 
things England did not do. Forced to fight, she has 
fought, because there are times when a nation, similar 
to an individual who loves peace and abhors a brawl, 
must either defend himself or in shame no longer dare 
claim kinship of his fellows. 

It does not become the German Ambassador to 
accuse England of being jealous of Germany^s 
prosperity. While Germany has built a wall of tariffs 
against England, England has thrown the doors to her 
market places wide open. She has shown no hostility 
to the legend " Made in Germany. " A commercial 
nation — and commerce is England's strength — does 
not go to war to overthrow competition, because no 
one knows better than the banker and the merchant 
and the trader that war does not pay. Germany 
found in the United Kingdom and the British domin- 
ions and dependencies her richest and most profitable 
market, and through her own folly Germany has lost 
a trade she can never recover. 

In two weeks after the declaration of war the Ger- 
man merchant marine, the pride of the Kaiser's 
heart, had virtually disappeared from the seven seas. 
German merchant vessels, from the magnificent 
Imperator and Vaterland down to the disreputable 
looking tramps, all the shipping that so proudly flew 
the German flag on the Atlantic and the Pacific, on 
the main traveled routes as well as in remote places 
where a cargo is to be picked up or goods made in 
Germany can find a purchaser, is either interned in 
neutral ports or tied up in German harbors or con- 
demned as lawful prize by the British courts. 

The German navy, which was the challenge of 



Appendix 265 

Germany to Britain on the seas, the greatest provo- 
cation one nation ever gave to another, which the 
German Emperor fondly imagined would make him 
as supreme on the sea as he imagined he was in- 
vincible on land, has been compelled to seek the 
security of its fortified bases. While British ships 
go about their ordinary business, while the great 
transatlantic lines under the British flag are running 
on their regular schedules, while cargoes of foodstuffs 
and other commodities are flowing in a never ending 
stream from American ports eastward and the current 
runs undisturbed in the reverse direction and British 
goods find their accustomed markets, Germany is 
beginning to feel the pinch of hunger, German indus- 
tries are prostrate, German commerce is paralyzed. 

It is these things that make Germany so bitter 
against England. They explain why Count von 
Bernstorff seeks to throw the responsibility upon 
England and hopes to gain American sympathy. He 
frankly admits that he is amazed by "the general 
hostility of the American press." The American 
press — and I think I speak with exact knowledge — has 
not been hostile, but it has been just. It has not 
been partisan, but it has pronounced judgment. On 
the evidence submitted it has rendered decision. 
Before the great bar of conscience the Kaiser has 
been brought to his assize. History has rendered 
its verdict. Without cause he provoked a war; to 
gratify ambition he sowed desolation. Little children 
he has made fatherless, and brides to mourn their 
husbands. The tears of the living and the blood of 
the dying drench Europe. His legions have marched, 
and with them have gone ruin, death, horror. He 
has spared neither young nor old. He has spread 



266 The Real Truth About Germany 

the torch and with flame and sword devastated city 
and plain. He has made the world a house of mourn- 
ing; he has stricken down the firstborn and brought 
sorrow to the aged. He has made honor a jest and 
the word of a King a thing of scorn. He has invoked 
the name of God and defiled man made in the image 
of his Maker. Under his iron heel he has crushed 
civilization and checked its progress. 

Knowing the truth, it would be amazing if the Amer- 
ican press and the American people were able to 
withhold their sympathy from the nations forced by 
Germany to defend themselves. 

DOES GERMANY WANT PEACE? 

Since the above was written there have been numer- 
ous articles in the newspapers intimating that Ger- 
many was willing to make peace, and the German 
Ambassador has endeavored to make the American 
people believe that while Germany is ready to end the 
war, Great Britain and her Allies prefer to fight rather 
than to restore peace to the world and end its toll 
of blood and misery. 

On September 6th, Mr. Oscar S. Straus, a member 
of the Hague Permanent Tribunal of Arbitration, 
came to Washington and told Secretary Bryan he 
believed that the German Emperor would be willing 
to consider terms of peace. Mr. Straus had met 
Count Bernstorff at a dinner in New York, and had 
been given to understand by him that Germany 
would be glad to have the United States exercise its 
good offices to bring hostilities to an end. Mr. 
Straus asked the consent of the German Ambassador 
to repeat the conversation to Mr. Bryan, and was 
permitted to do so. 



Appendix 267 

Mr. Straus saw Mr. Bryan and was authorized by 
him to call on the British and French Ambassadors 
and ascertain from them the views of their Govern- 
ments. Both Ambassadors informed Mr. Straus 
that they had received no instructions on the subject, 
but they would communicate any proposal made to 
them. For the benefit of the reader unfamiliar with 
the forms of diplomacy, it should be explained that 
an Ambassador cannot bind his Government without 
specific instructions, and can only act in accordance 
with the instructions he has received from his Foreign 
Minister. The British and French Ambassadors 
informed Mr. Straus that their Governments desired 
peace, as they always had, but it must be no tempo- 
rary truce ; it must be peace made under such condi- 
tions that it would be a lasting peace, and Great 
Britain, France, and Russia could feel certain they 
would not again be suddenly attacked. 

Mr. Bryan had in the meantime asked Count 
Bernstorff to come to Washington so that he could 
ascertain whether he had been authorized by the 
German Emperor to seek the good offices of the 
United States. Count Bernstorff admitted he had 
received no instructions. His conversation with Mr. 
Straus was based on his own belief that the German 
Emperor was not adverse to peace. Mr. Bryan asked 
Count Bernstorff if he had any objection to Mr. 
Gerard, the American Ambassador to Germany, 
ascertaining whether the German Government would 
accept an offer of mediation made through the United 
States. To this Count Bernstorff assented. 

The British and French Ambassadors at once com- 
municated the substance of Mr. Strauses conversation 
to their respective Governments. Sir Edward Grey, 



268 The Real Truth About Germany 

the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
speaking for England as well as her Allies, confirmed 
in effect what Sir Cecil Spring Rice, the British Am- 
bassador, had informally said to Mr. Straus. It was 
that Great Britain desired peace, but it must be a 
lasting peace. If Germany had terms to offer that 
would effectually insure peace the Allied Powers 
would receive and consider them. 

Germany having taken the first steps it was incum- 
bent upon her, if she was sincere and acting in good 
faith, to make known the terms she proposed. If 
she was not sincere, if Count Bernstorff, with or with- 
out instructions, was simply " fishing, " hoping to 
learn that the Allies were discouraged and disheart- 
ened and would welcome peace at any price, the 
purpose would have been served and the United 
States would be told that Germany had no terms to 
offer. 

The reader will be able to form his own conclusions 
as to Count Bernstorff^s sincerity and the good faith 
of Germany. 

Mr. Gerard in due course saw the German Im- 
perial Chancellor, who had the effrontery — not to use 
a harsher word — to say that " the United States ought 
to get proposals of peace from the Allies." When 
Gerard*s report was made to the President, Mr. 
Wilson saw that it was useless to press the matter 
further. 

If Germany had been sincere, if in good faith she 
had wanted peace, the Chancellor would not have 
banged the door in the face of the United States. 

It is only necessary to say a few words regarding 
the present position of Great Britain and her Allies. 
England desires peace, sincerely and ardently she 



Appendix 269 

longs for peace, but it must be no sham peace, no 
mockery of the word. 

If ever a nation fought the battle of the world, 
fought for liberty and in the cause of righteousness, 
that nation is England. She is to-day doing what she 
did a hundred years ago when she rid the world of 
the menace of a military despot and saved Europe 
from coming under the dominion of one man. She 
stands to-day the bulwark against militarism and a 
military oligarchy. She stands to-day for liberty, 
freedom of thought and action; the subordination of 
the sword to the rule of law. She stands to-day the 
champion of Democracy, the right of man to be " sole 
sponsor of himself." If she is crippled or crushed, 
the dam that holds back militarism is swept away. 
For many years Europe has been an armed camp. 
Should England cease to be a great Power all Europe 
will be divided into two parts — Germany and the 
rest, military satrapies governed by an autocrat in 
Berlin, arrogating to himself the divine right to govern. 

There will no longer be any "little nations." 
Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, 
Norway will be robbed of their nationality and inde- 
pendence, their national aspirations, their manners 
and customs, their ideals, their memories of the past, 
their hopes of the future. They will be ground under 
the iron heel of Germany, conquered provinces, their 
people valuable only as increasing the power of Ger- 
man military autocracy, an autocracy that will not 
be satisfied with having enslaved Europe but will 
seek the conquest of other worlds so that Democracy 
may perish from the face of the earth and absolutism 
be the creed of kings. 

This war is not of England's seeking. She has 



270 The Real Truth About Germany 

been forced into it, and having been forced into it she 
will not relinquish the sword until it can be sheathed 
with safety. Resolutely, with grim determination, 
the British Empire is determined there shall be an 
end of militarism. Too long has the world lain under 
the grievous curse of its armed hosts. Too long has 
the terror of war threatened. Too long has the cor- 
ruption of the sword worked. 

England has not gone into this war with a light heart. 
There are to-day no light hearts in England, in Scot- 
land, in Ireland, in any place where the British flag 
flies. But whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice, 
we must see this thing through, we must save civi- 
lization from a return to barbarism, from the shame 
of reverting to the day when justice was unknown 
and only strength was feared. 

Were England to make peace now, to make peace 
on such terms as the German Emperor would only 
too willingly accept, she would be forever disgraced 
and deserve the contempt of all mankind. England 
has taken upon herself a very solemn duty — the pre- 
servation of the national existence of Belgium against 
the rapacity of Germany. The most virulent enemy 
of England, of France, of Russia has for Belgium only 
admiration; profound admiration for her courage, 
profound pity for the ruin and desolation that have 
moved the compassion of the world. 

Accident involved Belgium. She was the ally of 
none of the combatants. She was not concerned in 
the jealousies or intrigues of the Powers. She had 
no revenge to satisfy; no long standing debt of hate 
to settle. She offered no provocation. She was 
peacefully pursuing her own affairs, her people happy 
and prosperous, their safety assured. For had not 



Appendix 271 

Germany, France, and England entered into a treaty 
to respect the neutrality of Belgium? 

The German Emperor had pledged his Eangly word, 
and he broke it with never a thought of shame. The 
quickest way to strike at the heart of France was 
through Belgium; Belgium must either allow her 
territory to be violated or she would be crushed. 
When England remonstrated, when England pro- 
tested against the infraction of the treaty guarantee- 
ing the neutrality of Belgium, England was told that 
a treaty was merely a scrap of paper. So lightly did 
the German Emperor hold his honor. 

Gallant little Belgium! To her honor was more 
than a scrap of paper. To her duty was more than 
the hypocrisy of a phrase. Confronted with the 
choice between safety bought at a price that only 
cowards would pay or freedom purchased at a price 
that might make the bravest hesitate, she did not 
flinch. She would fight. She might be conquered, 
but she would not be a craven. 

Belgium must be protected; her safety must be 
assured ; she must be compensated for the wrongs she 
has suffered; her cities must be rebuilt; her starving 
and ruined people must be helped. Only in one way 
can this be done — Germany must be deprived of her 
power again to outrage Belgium; for all the destruc- 
tion that Germany has done, Germany must be made 
to pay. It would be a farce to rely on German " as- 
surances, '* to place any faith in any treaty. Ger- 
many has shown she has no respect for treaties. 
She laughs at a scrap of paper. All that she respects 
is force; to her force is more to be respected than 
honor. To make peace now would be to hand over 
Belgium, racked and tortured, to the executioner. 



2']2 The Real Truth About Germany 

It would be disgraceful. It would be a greater 
infamy than Germany's infamous crime. 

The present generation is thrilled when it reads of 
battles and great deeds, the warm blood of youth is 
chilled when, with the ready response of youth, it 
reads of the dead and dying, the horrors of the battle- 
field, but youth cannot grasp what it means to a nation 
to be at war. It is the men of a former generation 
who understand. They know. They recall those 
four long, agonizing years, years that tried men's 
souls, that brought out all that was best and brav- 
est in a people, when women with breaking hearts 
smiled through their tears and companioned by 
death lost not their courage, when men met dis- 
aster bravely and defeat made them only the more 
resolute. 

They were fighting for a great cause, and it sus- 
tained them. The same spirit animates England 
to-day. 

I desire to correct the statement that has so often 
been made in the German press and by Germans 
in high official position that England wants to destroy 
Germany. Nothing could be farther from our 
thoughts. We have no grudge against Germany; we 
English have no dislike of the Germans. What we 
want to destroy is German militarism. That is the 
only destruction we are determined to accomplish. 

Consider for a moment. Does any sensible man 
ruthlessly destroy his own property? Is it not only 
a fool who ruins his best customer? Would it not 
be the act of a madman to make himself poorer? 
This is the price England would pay were she so foolish 
as to " destroy " Germany. Englishmen have millions 
of pounds invested in German enterprises, and Ger- 



Appendix 273 

man destruction means the loss of those investments. 
Germany was England's best customer, as England 
was Germany's best customer, and is it to be sup- 
posed that England would deliberately destroy her 
best market? Cannot everyone see that the greater 
the prosperity of Germany, the more Germany buys 
from England, the more England will sell to Germany? 
Every ship Germany has put on the ocean; every yard 
of goods Germany has sold in South America, in 
India, in Africa, in England; every machine she has 
built, every pound of dyestufifs, every barrel of cement 
she has made; everything that has kept her factories 
and her people profitably employed has been an 
extension of the world's commerce, has added to the 
wealth of the world, has made it possible for more 
people to buy the things that England manufactures, 
has made England richer. 

What can England make out of this war? Nothing, 
absolutely nothing. England's land hunger has long 
been satisfied, she has cast no covetous eyes on 
German colonies. Were Germany to pay an indemnity 
so huge that it would virtually reduce her to slavery, 
the millions would not compensate England for all 
that the war wiU cost her, for the loss of life, for the 
misery of women, for the tears of the fatherless, 
for the dislocation of commerce, for the impoverish- 
ment of the whole world. And when the world is 
poor England, because of her industrial and financial 
position, is the chief sufferer. 

The German people do not believe that England 
seeks their destruction, but German militarism must 
justify itself. Callous as the ruling class of Germany 
has always been to the opinion of the world, in this 
emergency, knowing it stands condemned, it craves 



274 The Real Truth About Germany 

the support of the United States, and in defense 
attributes to England base motives. 
i We have put on our armor. We shall carry it 
through the heat of the day. Its burden is heavy, 
but we shall not take it off until men again breathe 
free, no longer affrighted by the terror of war. 
When that day comes we shall make peace. 



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